Robert Fitzgerald Diggs (born July 5, 1969), better known by his stage name RZA (/ˈrɪzə/RIZ-ə), is an American rapper, record producer, musician, actor, filmmaker and author. A prominent figure in hip hop, RZA is the de facto leader of the Wu-Tang Clan.[1] He has produced almost all of Wu-Tang Clan's albums, as well as many Wu-Tang solo and affiliate projects. He is a cousin of the late group-mate Ol' Dirty Bastard and GZA (who also formed the group with RZA). He has also released solo albums under the alter-ego Bobby Digital, along with executive producing credits for side projects. Prior to forming the Wu-Tang Clan, RZA was a founding member of the horrorcore group Gravediggaz, where he went by the the name The RZArector.

He is especially known for his music production, with a style that includes the use of soul samples and sparse beats that has proved highly influential. The magazine The Source placed him on its list of the 20 greatest producers in the magazine's twenty-year history.[2]Vibe listed him among the top 8 greatest hip-hop producers of all time.[3]NME placed him on their list of the 50 Greatest Producers Ever.[4]

After a shoot-out in Ohio in 1992, he faced eight years in jail. "When they said 'not guilty', my face stuck in a smile for three days," he recalled. "I was just walking around town, thinking about my daughter and my wife. Right then I said goodbye to anything that would put me in that situation again. I was up on trial on an attempted murder charge. I was a motherfucking fool, with all that knowledge in my head and ending up there."[10]

Diggs formed a new group with his cousins and five other childhood friends. This group would be named Wu-Tang Clan, releasing their debut album Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers in 1993.[11] RZA operated as Wu-Tang Clan's de facto leader, producing and rapping on the group's songs.

As each of the group's members embarked on solo careers, RZA continued to produce nearly everything Wu-Tang released during the period 1994–1996, which included both composing and arranging the instrumental tracks as well as overseeing and directing the creative process. RZA's rule over the Clan at this time is described in 2004's Wu-Tang Manual book as "a dictatorship". He also released a hit single of his own, in the form of "Wu-Wear: The Garment Renaissance". The song was featured on the High School High soundtrack, and was released to promote the Wu-Tang clothing brand, also called "Wu-Wear". It peaked at #60 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #6 on the Hot Rap Singles chart.[12]

When it came time for the Gravediggaz, Prince Paul was thinking about putting a group together. He wanted to get some good MCs. Poetic was another dope MC who was underrated out on Long Island. He had one single out on Tommy Boy that didn't take off, but he was a dope MC. As the Grym Reaper, you know how many dope lyrics he dropped. Frukwan, one of the top lyricists out of Stetsasonic. He and Paul were friends already. He told him about me. He said, "I know this one guy who is super-dope."

At the same time, I was also trying to do Wu-Tang. I was trying to start my own company and stuff, so when Paul called me up and invited me to his crib on Long Island and told me his idea for forming this group, I thought it would be an honor to be in a group with him. But I told him, "I'm also producing a group, and I'm also part of a family that I'm building." He said, "Yo, that's crazy." We would talk a lot of times. [Ol' Dirty Bastard] came to his house a lot of times with me. [Method Man], too. We all would just go there and try to find ways to get out of the streets. Me, I was trying to get out of the ghetto. Paul had a lot of respect for me, so he helped me break out of it. I think he liked that I was so dark, but I didn't know I was dark.[13]

During the 1998–2000 period RZA ceased to produce every Wu-Tang solo album as he had done previously, but continued to contribute usually one or two songs on average to each record as well as receiving an Executive Producer credit.

I had to put out Bobby Digital instead of The Cure because if I didn't do that I would've suffered two things. First, I would have revealed where I was musically too soon. Wu-Tang is the perfect medium to expose anything new because I got the most people coming together to buy it. For me to expose it for my own self, I don't think that would've been a wise thing for me to do. I might've caught more people than Bobby Digital caught, but I still wouldn't catch the magnitude of what the Wu-Tang could catch. Maybe this year or next year the game may be different. The Cure is so intimate in writing that you gotta live that Cure shit. I was living like Bobby Digital in '98, '99 na'mean? So if I put "The Cure" out, then I wouldn't even be able to get on stage and perform it for ya'll cause I'd be lying."

In 1999 the RZA moved into composing film scores. His first work, Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999), earned praise; he also had a brief cameo in the film itself, as a fellow samurai wearing camouflage. The experience was positive and, as he noted during an interview on National Public Radio's Fresh Air, the work with traditional musicians gave him the desire to learn how to read and write music.[15]

NYC Studio 2002

This is one of my biggest adventures, and one of my [best] feelings. We watched Kill Bill in Manhattan. At the premiere, that happened, but you know, that's Hollywood. But in Manhattan, a theater, just a bunch of kids coming from wherever New York, inside a movie theater and the movie's coming on. They don't even know that I'm the man with the music, and when it said, "Original Music by The RZA", we hear the audience clapping. And they didn't clap for nothing else, because the movie's just coming on. I was like, 'Wow, what the fuck is that about?' That's different. It actually might be something special. You never care who did that... Once you see who stars in the shit, you don't read "edited", you don't read all that. You be eating your popcorn and it go right by you. But, for somebody to see that and then clap, that's a different thing right there. That felt pretty pleasing.

"The time is right to bring some older material to the masses digitally. Our fans have been dedicated and patient, and they're hungry to hear the music that has set us apart from so many others. Hip-hop is alive in Wu Music, and with The Orchard, we've got a solid partner that understands our audience and is committed to doing all they can to help us reach the fans. I'm definitely looking forward to working with them to see what else we all come up with. There's much more to come."[19]

In a 2011 interview, RZA revealed that he had recently decided to clean out his beat machines of instrumentals he made for the Wu-Tang Clan that were never used; as a result, he gave away ten beats each to Nas, Busta Rhymes and Talib Kweli, as well as 20 beats for Kanye West, including two that were used on West's previous two albums.[22] RZA produced UK artist Josh Osho's 2012 debut album L.I.F.E.

Other record labels were later founded in the early 2000s, and are still active in the present. Very little is known about these labels, other that the fact that RZA produces music on them. It is unknown if RZA is CEO, or has high position within these labels, considering that he was never known to have a CEO position of any recording label.

RZA's production technique, specifically the manner of chopping up and/or speeding or slowing soul samples to fit his beats, has been imitated by hip hop producers including Kanye West and Just Blaze. West's own take on RZA's style[25] briefly flooded the rap market with what was dubbed "chipmunk soul," the speeding of a vocal sample to where it sounded as though the singer had inhaled helium. Several producers at the time copied the style, creating other offshoots. West has admitted that his style was distinctly influenced by the RZA's production,[26]

Said by Kanye West:

Wu-Tang? Me and my friends talk about this all the time... We think Wu-Tang had one of the biggest impacts as far as a movement. From slang to style of dress, skits, the samples. Similar to the [production] style I use, RZA has been doing that.[27]

In response, RZA himself has spoken quite positively of the comparisons:

All good. I got super respect for Kanye. He came up to me about a year or two ago. He gave me mad praising and blessings... For people to say Wu-Tang inspire Kanye, Kanye is one of the biggest artists in the world. That goes back to what we say: 'Wu-Tang is forever.' Kanye is going to inspire people to be like him." After hearing Kanye's work on The Blueprint, RZA claimed that a torch-passing had occurred between him and West, saying, "The shoes gotta be filled. If you ain't gonna do it, somebody else is gonna do it. That's how I feel about rap today."[28]

His Bobby Digital albums introduced tweaked-out new age elements to his sound; these have incorporated themselves more fully into his beats on newer albums such as Method Man's 4:21... The Day After.

The way I produce now is I produce more like a musician", RZA said. "In the old days, I produced more like a DJ. I didn't understand music theory at all. Now that I do understand music theory, I make my music more playable, meaning not only could you listen to it, you could get someone else to play it. Before, you couldn't even write down Wu-Tang music. I think almost 80 percent of this record can be duplicated by a band, which is important for music, because that means 10 years from now, somebody can make a whole song out of it and cover it like how I'm covering The Beatles song.[29]

In a 2010 radio interview with UK hip hop station Conspiracy Worldwide Radio, RZA spoke in great detail about the homemade, candid ethos of much of his classic work, including the organic creation process behind ODB's debut album.[30]

RZA is known for having multiple aliases, for different lyrical styles and personalities: Prince Rakeem, The Abbot, Bobby Digital, Bobby Steels, the Scientist, Prince Delight, Prince Dynamite, Ruler Zig-Zag-Zig Allah.[31] During his time with the Gravediggaz, he went by the name the RZArector, which is for waking up the mentally dead.[32]

I made my albums like movies, you know what I mean? I wanted people to be able to listen to a movie in their car while they was driving. "I want to start off making movies where people will know they're at a movie. Like my man Tarantino, he did that movie Pulp Fiction – classic movie, man. Every time it comes on TV or cable, I have to stop and watch it. And it's based on nothing, really. There's only a few people out there that are able to do that, where it comes from nothing but the vision and imagination of the artist.[36]

In the late '90s, RZA began production of a feature-length film based on "Bobby Digital", an alias he used on various albums. Though the film was never completed, he continued shooting music videos for his side projects and solo tracks.

I got children of my own, you know what I mean? Domestic problems at home. If you start coming home at night from helping all your fans and people and then you've got problems at the house, that will kill any man's spirit. Say you're Bobby Digital, you're RZA, and your girl fornicates on you—you feel like shit. 'Who the fuck? How the fuck?' And say it's some nigga who sells weed—'I'm a millionaire and you're fucking with a regular motherfucker?' That takes a lot from your spirit. That slowed me down, and then the passing of my mother—the two big blows of the year 2000. It really kept me back a few years—I had to go and find myself again. I never told anybody that. You got an exclusive on that one! And I think that's enough right there.[45]

RZA is vegan[46] and has promoted the vegan lifestyle and compassion for animals on behalf of PETA.[47][48] "I tell you one thing I did use to like: the fish and chips," he said in 1997. "But I stopped eating fish this year. One day I just felt the death in it."[49]

^Jordan, Chris. "Hip-hop benefit to go on minus state backing", Home News Tribune, May 15, 2002. Accessed September 19, 2014. "I'm here to show that whether it's being supported or funded I'm still here with my own time and my own dime for these young brothers and young sisters to get a chance to know that they got to read and they got to study said RZA also known as Robert Diggs of Marlboro Township".

1.
Brooklyn
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Brooklyn is the most populous borough of New York City, with a Census-estimated 2,636,735 residents in 2015. It borders the borough of Queens at the end of Long Island. Today, if New York City dissolved, Brooklyn would rank as the third-most populous city in the U. S. behind Los Angeles, the borough continues, however, to maintain a distinct culture. Many Brooklyn neighborhoods are ethnic enclaves, Brooklyns official motto, displayed on the Borough seal and flag, is Eendraght Maeckt Maght which translates from early modern Dutch as Unity makes strength. Since 2010, Brooklyn has evolved into a hub of entrepreneurship and high technology startup firms. The history of European settlement in Brooklyn spans more than 350 years, the neighborhood of Marine Park was home to North Americas first tidal mill. It was built by the Dutch, and the foundation can be seen today, however, the area was not formally settled as a town. Many incidents and documents relating to this period are in Gabriel Furmans early compilation, what is today Brooklyn left Dutch hands after the final English conquest of New Netherland in 1664, a prelude to the Second Anglo–Dutch War. The English reorganized the six old Dutch towns on southwestern Long Island as Kings County on November 1,1683 and this tract of land was recognized as a political entity for the first time, and the municipal groundwork was laid for a later expansive idea of Brooklyn identity. On August 27,1776 was fought the Battle of Long Island, the first major engagement fought in the American Revolutionary War after independence was declared, and the largest of the entire conflict. British troops forced Continental Army troops under George Washington off the heights near the sites of Green-Wood Cemetery, Prospect Park. The fortified American positions at Brooklyn Heights consequently became untenable and were evacuated a few days later, One result of the Treaty of Paris in 1783 was the evacuation of the British from New York City, celebrated by residents into the 20th century. The New York Navy Yard operated in Wallabout Bay for the entire 19th century, the first center of urbanization sprang up in the Town of Brooklyn, directly across from Lower Manhattan, which saw the incorporation of the Village of Brooklyn in 1817. Reliable steam ferry service across the East River to Fulton Landing converted Brooklyn Heights into a town for Wall Street. Ferry Road to Jamaica Pass became Fulton Street to East New York, Town and Village were combined to form the first, kernel incarnation of the City of Brooklyn in 1834. Industrial deconcentration in mid-century was bringing shipbuilding and other manufacturing to the part of the county. Each of the two cities and six towns in Kings County remained independent municipalities, and purposely created non-aligning street grids with different naming systems and it later became the most popular and highest circulation afternoon paper in America. The publisher changed to L. Van Anden on April 19,1842, on May 14,1849 the name was shortened to The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, on September 5,1938 it was further shortened to Brooklyn Eagle

2.
Staten Island
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Staten Island /ˌstætən ˈaɪlənd/ is one of the five boroughs of New York City in the U. S. state of New York. In the southwest of the city, Staten Island is the southernmost part of both the city and state of New York, with Conference House Park at the tip of the island. The borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, with a 2015 Census-estimated population of 474,558, Staten Island is the least populated of the boroughs but is the third-largest in area at 58 sq mi. Staten Island is the borough of New York with a non-Hispanic White majority. The borough is coextensive with Richmond County, and until 1975 was the Borough of Richmond and its flag was later changed to reflect this. Staten Island has been called the forgotten borough by inhabitants who feel neglected by the city government. The East Shore is home to the 2. 5-mile F. D. R, Boardwalk, the fourth-longest in the world. The South Shore, site of the 17th-century Dutch and French Huguenot settlement, the West Shore is the least populated and most industrial part of the island. Motor traffic can reach the borough from Brooklyn via the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and from New Jersey via the Outerbridge Crossing, Goethals Bridge, and Bayonne Bridge. Staten Island has Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus lines and an MTA rapid transit line, the Staten Island Railway, Staten Island is the only borough that is not connected to the New York City Subway system. The free Staten Island Ferry connects the borough to Manhattan and is a popular tourist attraction, providing views of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and Lower Manhattan. The landfill is being redeveloped as Freshkills Park, a devoted to restoring habitat. As in much of North America, human habitation appeared in the island fairly rapidly after the retreat of the ice sheet, archaeologists have recovered tool evidence of Clovis culture activity dating from about 14,000 years ago. This evidence was first discovered in 1917 in the Charleston section of the island, various Clovis artifacts have been discovered since then, on property owned by Mobil Oil. The island was abandoned later, possibly because of the extirpation of large mammals on the island. Rossville points are a type of arrowhead that defines a Native American cultural period that runs from the Archaic period to the Early Woodland period. They are named for the Rossville section of Staten Island, where they were first found near the old Rossville Post Office building, at the time of European contact, the island was inhabited by the Raritan band of the Unami division of the Lenape. In Lenape, one of the Algonquian languages, Staten Island was called Aquehonga Manacknong, meaning as far as the place of the bad woods, or Eghquhous, the area was part of the Lenape homeland known as Lenapehoking

3.
Hip hop music
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It developed as part of hip hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements, MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching with turntables, break dancing, and graffiti writing. Other elements include sampling beats or bass lines from records, while often used to refer solely to rapping, hip hop more properly denotes the practice of the entire subculture. Hip hops early evolution occurred as sampling technology and drum machines became available and affordable. Turntablist techniques such as scratching and beatmatching developed along with the breaks and Jamaican toasting, rapping developed as a vocal style in which the artist speaks or chants along rhythmically with an instrumental or synthesized beat. The Sugarhill Gangs 1979 song Rappers Delight is widely regarded to be the first hip hop record to gain popularity in the mainstream. The 1980s marked the diversification of hip hop as the genre developed more complex styles, prior to the 1980s, hip hop music was largely confined within the United States. However, during the 1980s, it began to spread to scenes in dozens of countries. New school hip hop was the wave of hip hop music, originating in 1983–84 with the early records of Run-D. M. C. The Golden age hip hop period was a period between the mid-1980s and the early 1990s. Notable artists from this era include the Juice Crew, Public Enemy, & Rakim, Boogie Down Productions and KRS-One, EPMD, Slick Rick, Beastie Boys, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, Ultramagnetic MCs, De La Soul, and A Tribe Called Quest. Gangsta rap is a subgenre of hip hop that often focuses on the violent lifestyles, in the West Coast hip hop style, G-funk dominated mainstream hip hop for several years during the 1990s. I. G. In the 1990s, hip hop began to diversify with other regional styles emerging, such as Southern rap, at the same time, hip hop continued to be assimilated into other genres of popular music, examples being Neo soul and nu metal. Hip hop became a pop music genre in the mid-1990s. The popularity of hip hop music continued through the 2000s, with hip hop influences also increasingly finding their way into mainstream pop, the United States also saw the success of regional styles such as crunk, a Southern genre that emphasized the beats and music more than the lyrics. Starting in 2005, sales of hip hop music in the United States began to severely wane, during the mid-2000s, alternative hip hop secured a place in the mainstream, due in part to the crossover success of artists such as OutKast and Kanye West. Creation of the hip hop is often credited to Keith Cowboy, rapper with Grandmaster Flash. However, Lovebug Starski, Keith Cowboy, and DJ Hollywood used the term when the music was known as disco rap. Cowboy later worked the hip hop cadence into a part of his stage performance, the first use of the term in print was in The Village Voice, by Steven Hager, later author of a 1984 history of hip hop

4.
Rapping
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The components of rapping include content, flow, and delivery. Rap differs from spoken-word poetry in that rap is performed in time to a beat. Rapping is often associated with and an ingredient of hip-hop music. Rapping is also used in Kwaito music, a genre originated in Johannesburg, South Africa. Another form of rap that predates hip hop was boxer Muhammad Alis rhythmic poetry used to taunt his opponents in the 1960s and 1970s, rapping can be delivered over a beat, typically provided by a DJ, turntablist or Beatboxer, or without accompaniment. Stylistically, rap occupies an area between speech, prose, poetry, and singing. The word, as used to describe quick speech or repartee, the word had been used in British English since the 16th century. It was part of the African American dialect of English in the 1960s meaning to converse, today, the terms rap and rapping are so closely associated with hip-hop music that many writers use the terms interchangeably. The English verb rap has various meanings, such as to strike, especially with a quick, smart, or light blow, as well to utter sharply or vigorously, to rap out a command. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary gives a date of 1541 for the first recorded use of the word with the meaning to utter sharply, vigorously and it is these meanings from which the musical form of rapping derives, and this definition may be from a shortening of repartee. A rapper refers to a performer who raps, by the late 1960s, when Hubert G. Brown changed his name to H. Rap was used to describe talking on records as early as 1971, on Isaac Hayes album Black Moses with track names such as Ikes Rap, Ikes Rap II, Ikes Rap III, Hayes husky-voiced sexy spoken raps became key components in his signature sound. Del the Funky Homosapien similarly states that rap was used to refer to talking in a manner in the early 1970s. Back then what rapping meant, basically, was you trying to convey something—youre trying to convince somebody, thats what rapping is, its in the way you talk. Rapping can be traced back to its African roots, centuries before hip-hop music existed, the griots of West Africa were delivering stories rhythmically, over drums and sparse instrumentation. Such connections have been acknowledged by modern artists, modern day griots, spoken word artists, mainstream news sources. Grammy-winning blues musician/historian Elijah Wald and others have argued that the blues were being rapped as early as the 1920s, Wald went so far as to call hip hop the living blues. A notable recorded example of rapping in blues music was the 1950 song Gotta Let You Go by Joe Hill Louis, not just jazz music and lyrics but also jazz poetry

5.
Zither
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Zither is a class of stringed instruments. The word zither is a German rendering of the Latin word cithara, historically, it has been applied to any instrument of the cittern family, or an instrument consisting of many strings stretched across a thin, flat body – similar to a psaltery. This article describes the second variety, like a guitar or lute, a zithers body serves as a resonating chamber, but, unlike guitars and lutes, a zither lacks a distinctly separate neck assembly. The number of strings varies, from one to more than fifty, in modern common usage the term zither refers to three specific instruments, the concert zither, its variant the Alpine zither, and the chord zither. Concert and Alpine zithers are found in Slovenia, Austria, Hungary, France, north-western Croatia. Emigration from these areas during the 19th century introduced the concert, chord zithers similar to the instrument in the photograph also became popular in North America during the late 19th and early 20th century. These variants all use metal strings, similar to the cittern and it is not fully understood how zitter or zither came to be applied to the instruments in this article as well as German varieties of the cittern. The Hornbostel-Sachs system, an academic instrument classification method, also uses the term zither, pedal steel guitars, lap guitars, and keyboard instruments like the clavichord, harpsichord and piano also fall within this broad categorical use. The word has also used in conjunction with brand varieties of other string instruments. The earliest known surviving instrument of the family is a Chinese guqin. Increasing interest in music has brought wider recognition to these other zither family members. Many of these instruments have been sampled electronically, and are available in instrument banks for music synthesizers, some of these employed movable bridges similar to the Japanese koto, used for retuning the drone strings. The Alpine Scheitholt furnishes an example of this type of European zither. By the late 18th century, two varieties of European concert zither had developed, known as the Salzburg zither. Both styles are found in concert zithers today, although the Salzburg style has become by far the most common. The zither became a folk music instrument in Bavaria and Austria and. Viennese zitherist Johann Petzmayer became one of the outstanding virtuosi on these early instruments and his ideas were not, however, widely accepted until 1862, when luthier Max Amberger of Munich fabricated a new zither based on Weigels design. At this point the zither had reached something very close to its modern concert form, within a relatively short time the new design had largely replaced the old Volkszither throughout central Europe, particularly in the Alpine countries

6.
Sampler (musical instrument)
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The samples are loaded or recorded by the user or by a manufacturer. These sounds are played back by means of the sampler program itself. Because these samples are stored in digital memory, the information can be quickly accessed. A single sample may often be pitch-shifted to different pitches to produce musical scales, often samplers offer filters, effects units, modulation via low frequency oscillation and other synthesizer-like processes that allow the original sound to be modified in many different ways. Most samplers have polyphonic capabilities – they are able to more than one note at the same time. Many are also multitimbral – they can play back different sounds simultaneously, prior to computer memory-based samplers, musicians used tape replay keyboards, which store recordings on analog tape. When a key is pressed the tape head contacts the moving tape, to change sounds a new set of tapes had to be installed in the instrument. The emergence of the sampler made sampling far more practical. Bruce Haack built a digital sampler which he demonstrated on Mister Rogers Neighborhood in 1967, the home made synthesizer device included a built-in sampler which recorded, stored, played back and looped sounds controlled by switches, light sensors and human skin contact. EMS Musys system, developed by Peter Grogono, David Cockerell, the system ran on two mini-computers, Digital Equipment PDP-8s. These had 12,000 bytes of memory, backed up by a hard drive of 32k. EMS equipment was used to control the worlds first digital studio, the E-mu SP-1200 percussion sampler progressed Hip-Hop away from the drum machine sound upon its release in August 1987, ushering in the sample-based sound of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Akai pioneered many processing techniques, such as crossfade looping and time stretch to shorten or lengthen samples without affecting pitch, during the 1980s, hybrid synthesizers began to utilize short samples along with digital synthesis to create more realistic imitations of instruments than had previously been possible. Examples are the Korg M1, Roland U-110, Yamahas SY series, samplers, together with traditional Foley artists, are the mainstay of modern sound effects production. Using digital techniques various effects can be pitch-shifted and otherwise altered in ways that would have required many hours when done with tape, usually a sampler is controlled by an attached music keyboard or other external MIDI controller or source. Each note-message received by the sampler accesses a particular sample, often multiple samples are arranged across the keyboard, each assigned to a note or group of notes. Keyboard tracking allows samples to be shifted in pitch by an appropriate amount, each group of notes to which a single sample has been assigned is often called a keyzone, and the resultant set of zones is called a keymap. For example, in Fig 1, a keymap has been created four different samples

7.
Soul Temple Records
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Soul Temple Records is an American record label founded in 2012 by hip hop music recording artist RZA and Bob Perry, after the release of the RZA directed The Man with the Iron Fists. The labels first release would be that albums soundtrack, the label has since released studio albums by Wu-Tang Clan members Ghostface Killah and U-God. All albums released on the label are produced by RZA. On August 28,2012 leading up to the release of RZAs directorial debut The Man with the Iron Fist and he explained the goal of the label being, the label will release records from independent minded artists from a variety of genres, from the creative community. The labels first release would be revealed to be The Man With the Iron Fists OST, the album featured appearances from Kanye West, Wu-Tang Clan, Pusha T, Ghostface Killah, M. O. P. Freddie Gibbs, Wiz Khalifa, Kool G. Rap, Flatbush Zombies, Corrine Bailey Rae, Method Man, Raekwon, Talib Kweli, RZA said Soul Temple had been an idea he had for years, and it was inspired by his relationship with Isaac Hayes. On March 19,2013, RZA released The RZA Presents Shaolin Soul Selection, twelve Reasons to Die would be released on April 16,2013 and debut at number 27 on the Billboard 200 selling 15,000 copies in its first week of sale. In June 2013, U-God would sign onto Soul Temple to release his studio album. It would receive its release on July 23,2013 to minor commercial performance, U-God would criticize Soul Temple following its release, for him feeling they did not promote or release his record correctly. Soul Temple was also meant to release Souls of Mischiefs sixth studio album There Is Only Now in 2013 and he also revealed that Bob Perry had been removed from the mail-order department, and demoted from president of the label to VP of the A&R department. On December 24,2013, the label released Destiny Bends a tribute song for deceased actor Paul Walker by RZA for digital download

8.
Warner Bros. Records
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Warner Bros. Records was established on March 19,1958, as the recorded-music division of the American film studio Warner Bros. For most of its existence it was one of a group of labels owned and operated by larger parent corporations. The sequence of companies that controlled Warner Bros. and its allied labels evolved through a series of corporate mergers. Over this period, Warner Bros. Records grew from a minor player in the music industry to become one of the top recording labels in the world. In 2003, these assets were divested by their then owner Time Warner. This independent company traded as the Warner Music Group before being bought by Access Industries in 2011, WMG is the smallest of the three major international music conglomerates and the worlds last publicly traded major music company. Cameron Strang serves as CEO of the company, artists currently signed to Warner Bros. At the end of the silent movie period, Warner Bros, pictures decided to expand into publishing and recording so that it could access low-cost music content for its films. This new group controlled valuable copyrights on standards by George and Ira Gershwin and Jerome Kern, the label signed rising radio and recording stars Bing Crosby, Mills Brothers, and Boswell Sisters. In December 1931, Warner Bros. offloaded Brunswick to the American Record Corporation for a fraction of its former value, in a lease arrangement which did not include Brunswicks pressing plants. Warner Bros. sold Brunswick a second time, this time along with the old Brunswick pressing plants Warner owned, to Decca Records in exchange for a financial interest in Decca. The studio stayed out of the business for more than 25 years. Warner Bros. reëntered the record business in 1958 with the establishment of its own recording division, by this time, the established Hollywood studios were reeling from multiple challenges to their former dominance - the most notable being the introduction of television in the late 1940s. Legal changes also had a impact on their business—lawsuits brought by major stars had effectively overthrown the old studio contract system by the late 1940s. Pictures sold off much of its library in 1948 and, beginning in 1949. Semenenko in particular had a professional interest in the entertainment business. With the record business booming - sales had topped US$500 million by 1958 - Semnenko argued that it was foolish for Warner Bros, another impetus for the labels creation was the brief music career of Warner Bros. actor Tab Hunter. In 1958, the studio signed Hunter as its first artist to its newly formed record division, to establish the label, the company hired former Columbia Records president James B

9.
Epic Records
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Epic Records is an American record company owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, Inc. Epic was founded predominantly as a jazz and classical music label in 1953 and it later expanded its scope to include a more diverse range of musical genres, including pop, R&B, rock and hip hop. Historically, the label has housed popular acts such as Boston, ABBA, Michael Jackson, Celine Dion, Dave Clark Five, Gloria Estefan, Pearl Jam, Shakira, Anastacia, and Sly & the Family Stone. Along with Columbia and RCA Records, Epic is one of Sony Music Entertainments three main record labels, L. A. Reid has served as chairman and CEO of Epic since July 2011. Sylvia Rhone was appointed president in March 2014, Epic Records was launched in 1953 by Columbia Records for the purpose of marketing jazz, pop and classical music that did not fit the theme of its more mainstream Columbia Records label. Initial classical music releases were from Philips Records which distributed Columbia product in Europe, pop talent on co-owned Okeh Records were transferred to Epic which made Okeh a rhythm and blues label. Epics bright-yellow, black, and blue became a familiar trademark for many jazz. By 1960, the musical base had been expanded to include all genres. This was done in part to prevent the roster of Columbia Records from being overstuffed with newer artists, subsequently, Epic became better known for its signing of newer, fledgling acts. By the end of the 1960s, Epic earned its first gold records and had evolved into a formidable hit-making force in rock and roll, R&B and country music. Among its many acts, it included Roy Hamilton, Bobby Vinton, The Dave Clark Five, The Hollies, Tammy Wynette, Donovan, The Yardbirds, Lulu, July, Helen Shapiro and Jeff Beck. Also during the 1960s, Epic oversaw the smaller subsidiary CBS labels including Okeh Records, in 1968, Epic recordings began being distributed in the UK by CBS after the distribution deal with EMI expired that year, Epic itself launched in England around 1971. Epic was involved in a trade of artists. Graham Nash was signed to Epic because of his membership in The Hollies, when the newly formed Crosby, Stills & Nash wanted to sign with Atlantic Records, Ahmet Ertegün worked out a deal with Clive Davis whereby Richie Furays new band Poco would sign with Epic. Also contributing to the success was its distribution of Philadelphia International Records. Sony bought CBS Records in 1987, and the company was renamed Sony Music in 1991. In 2004, Sony merged with another powerhouse music distributor, BMG, bringing labels such as RCA, Arista, Columbia, Epic, Jive, in February 2009, singer and songwriter Amanda Ghost was appointed president of Epic Records. Later in the year, Sony BMG Music merged Epic and Columbias operations, Sony BMGs Legacy Recordings reissues the companys classic and catalog titles

10.
Sony Music Entertainment
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Sony Music Entertainment is an American music company owned by Sony. It is incorporated as a partnership of Sony Music Holdings Inc. through Sony Entertainment. The company was first founded in 1929 as American Record Corporation and renamed Columbia Recording Corporation in 1938, in 1966, the company was reorganized to become CBS Records. Sony Corporation bought the company in 1987 and renamed it Sony Music Entertainment in 1991, the buyout led to the dissolution of BMG, which relaunched as BMG Rights Management. Sony Music Entertainment is one of the Big Three record companies, being the second largest after Universal Music Group, in 1929, ARC was founded through a merger of several record companies. In 1934, in the midst of Great Depression, the Columbia Phonograph Company, ARC was acquired in 1938 by the Columbia Broadcasting System, which, in turn, had been formed by the Columbia Phonograph Company, but then sold off. ARC was renamed Columbia Recording Corporation, RCA Victor Records executive Ted Wallerstein convinced CBS head William S. Paley to buy ARC and Paley made Wallerstein head of the newly acquired record company. The renamed company made Columbia its flagship label and Okeh its subsidiary label and this allowed ARCs leased labels Brunswick Records and Vocalion Records to revert to their former owner Warner Bros. which sold them to Decca Records. Columbia kept the Brunswick catalogue recorded from December 1931 onward on the Columbia label and he was succeeded by James Conkling as head of Columbia Records. In 1951, Columbia severed its ties with the EMI-owned record label of the same name, Okeh Records continued to be distributed by EMI on the Columbia label. Columbia founded Epic Records in 1953 and in 1956, Conkling left Columbia and he would help establish the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences before eventually becoming the first president of the newly launched Warner Bros. His successor, Goddard Lieberson began the first of two stints as head of the record company, and in 1958, Columbia founded another label, Date Records, which initially issued rockabilly music. In 1960, Columbia/CBS began negotiations with its international distributor Philips Records with the goal of starting its own global record company. Philips acquisition of US-based Mercury Records in 1961 paved the way for this, elsewhere, CBSs Mexican record company, Discos Columbia, was renamed Discos CBS by 1963. In 1964, Columbia set out acquiring record companies in countries for its CBS Records International Unit. EMI continued to distribute Epic and Okeh label material on the Columbia label in the UK until the deal with EMI expired in 1968 when CBS took over distribution. In late 1965, the Date subsidiary label was revived and this label released the first string of hits for Peaches & Herb and scored a few minor hits from various other artists. Dates biggest success was Time of the Season by the Zombies, the label was discontinued in 1970

11.
Koch Records
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Entertainment One Music, a primary division of Entertainment One, is an independent record label in the United States. It has garnered the most Billboard hits of any independently owned music label in history and it is also distributed by the Universal Music Group in Europe under the name eOne Universal. On January 22,2009, Koch Records was officially branded as E1 Music by parent company Entertainment One, E1 Entertainment acquired KOCH Entertainment in June 2005, and renamed the company E1 Music. Since its inception as KOCH Records, E1 Music has charted over 100 albums on Billboards Independent Chart, E1 Music has been the number one independent label according to Billboard for the last six years and quickly grew to become North Americas largest independently owned and distributed record label. E1 Music covers all genres from adult-contemporary to rock, hip hop/urban to country. E1 Music was formed in January 1987 as Koch Records to serve as the North American umbrella for Koch Entertainment. They would sign many country, classical, and rock acts including Ringo Starr, Joan Baez, Chris Brubeck, Bob James, the label soon began to gain ground on the other independent record labels in the United States. In the 2000s, they began to sign hip hop acts. They signed various distribution deals with labels like Open Bar Entertainment, Terror Squad, D-Block Records, in 2004, they were able to sign a deal with Snoop Dogg and his Doggystyle Records along with Mobb Deep. They hired Snoop Dogg on to head up their western spin off Koch West, Koch also added onto their roster, Camron and his Diplomat Records. Diplomat rapper, Jim Jones would rise to prominence on the label through the deal, Koch later signed Yonkers rapper, J-Hood and his label On Da Grind Ent. Koch has also had releases from 2Pac, Tha Dogg Pound, Kurupt, Daz Dillinger and Gangsta Advisory. In 2007, when they signed J-Hood they gave him a big position in their Koch East division, J-Hood never released this album and he was booted from D-Block. In 2007, they signed a deal with Foxy Brown and her Black Rose Entertainment, as well as with Ray J. Slim Thug was signed to the label along with his Boss Hoggs label in late 2005. Latin Thug Records was formed by CEO Reyes to build a business with his brother and acting VP of A&R Mellow Man Ace that would focus on releasing personal projects. The label represents the extended Latin Thug family, including projects from Sen and Mellow and collaborations with B Real, Soul Assassins. In March 2008, the company signed neo-soul singer Dwele to their lineup, in October 2008, they signed also pop-jazz singer Basia, and released her comeback album Its That Girl Again a year later. Koch Records also releases music, such as Pokémon, Barney, Sesame Street, The Wiggles

12.
V2 Records
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V2 Records is a record label that was purchased by Universal Music Group in 2007, and then by PIAS Entertainment Group in 2013. The label was founded in 1996 by Richard Branson, five years after he sold Virgin Records to EMI, the label was owned 95% by Morgan Stanley, the chief financier of the company, and 5% by Branson. Over the years V2 acquired Gee Street Records, Junior Boys Own, Blue Dog Records, the label also distributed many labels, such as WichitaWichita, Luaka Bop, City Slang and Modular. Stereophonics were the first band to sign to the label, V2 now operates in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, Sweden, United Kingdom, and United States. It was distributed in the US by BMG, however it left for WEA shortly after the formation of Sony BMG. Its headquarters were located at 14 East 4th Street in Manhattan, the former US home of Island Records, in 2006 Branson sold V2 North America to Sheridan Square Entertainment LLC for $15 million. SSE then merged its label Artemis Records into V2 North America, the new label was effectively divested from the Virgin Group. On 12 January 2007, V2 North America announced that it was undergoing restructuring to focus on its back catalogue, as a result, their employees were let go and their roster of artists left as free agents. V2 Benelux was founded by Richard Branson in 1997 as part of the V2 International group with affiliates in USA, UK, Scandinavia, Germany, France, Italy and Benelux. In February 2007 the directors of V2 Benelux, Chris Boog and Tom Willinck, rounded off a management buy out together with their distributor. In August 2007, V2 Music Group was sold for £7 million to Universal Music Group, Cooperative Music has had significant success with various acts such as Fleet Foxes, Phoenix and The Black Keys. In 2009, the newly formed IndieBlu Music Holdings LLC acquired SSEs business, including V2 North America, IndieBlu was acquired by Entertainment One in 2010. In early 2013, PIAS acquired Cooperative Music from Universal Music Group, since its formation, PIAS Cooperative has had success with albums from Factory Floor, Temples, Maximo Park, John Grant, The Eels, and Midlake. Acoustic 07, an album released by V2 List of record labels Official website Cooperative Music

13.
Bertelsmann Music Group
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Bertelsmann Music Group was a division of German media company Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Japans Sony Corporation of America on October 1,2008. It was established in 1987 to combine the music activities of Bertelsmann. The joint venture with Sony Music was set up in August 2004 and it reduced the Big Five record companies to the Big Four record companies. At that time, the company had a 21. 5% share in the music market. Sony Music and BMG remained separate in Japan, although BMG Music Japan was wholly owned by Sony BMG. Bertelsmann sold its 50% share of Sony BMG to Sony Corporation of America for a total of $1.5 billion, and it is focused mainly in BMGs European stronghold markets. The basis of the company was formed through BMGs decision to withhold selected European music catalogues from the former Sony BMG joint venture, also kept separate from the acquisition by Sony Corporation of America was Sony BMGs wholly owned and operated BMG Japan. Sony Music Japan remained independent from the Sony BMG joint venture, therefore BMG, during Sony BMGs buyout, BMG Japan was instead picked up by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. It briefly continued to operate as an entity until a reorganization in early 2009 folded the company into Sony Music Japan. Barry Weiss, President and Chief Executive Officer, Zomba Label Group CEO Now part of Sony Music Entertainment after the buyout of Bertelsmann AGs 50% stake in Sony BMG. BMG Music Publishing, which was not part of the Sony BMG merger, was a business of the Bertelsmann Music Group until it was sold to Universal Music Group for €1.63 billion in 2007. Universal then folded the company into Universal Music Publishing Group, the company was headquartered at 245 Fifth Avenue, 8th Floor New York, New York 10016 and had operations in 36 offices in 25 countries. BMG Music publishing controlled over one million copyrights, BMG Music Publishing was the global leader in Classical music and was number one in Contemporary Christian music. Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing is BMG Music Publishings Christian publisher and owns over 60,000 copyrights, BMG Music Publishing and its assets have now been completely absorbed and folded into Universal Music Publishing Group. After Sony bought out Bertelsmanns share in Sony BMG, Bertelsmann was allowed to keep the rights to recordings from the former joint venture. These songs served as the foundation to BMG Rights Management, BMG Rights Management now serves as a division within Bertelsmann and as a replacement to the defunct Bertelsmann Music Group. A settlement in 2002 included the publishers and distributors, Sony Music, Warner Music, Bertelsmann Music Group, EMI Music. In restitution for price fixing they agreed to pay a $67.4 million fine and distribute $75.7 million in CDs to public and non-profit groups and it is estimated customers were overcharged by nearly $500 million and up to $5 per album

14.
Wu-Tang Clan
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Cappadonna later became an official member of the group. The group was formed in and is associated with the New York City borough of Staten Island, the Wu-Tang Clan has released seven gold and platinum studio albums with worldwide sales of more than 40 million albums, including members solo projects, since 1992. Its debut album, Enter the Wu-Tang, is considered to be one of the greatest albums in hip-hop history and it is said to have been groundbreaking for hip-hop and one of the most important hip-hop albums. In 2008, About. com ranked them the No.1 greatest hip hop group of all time, kris Ex of Rolling Stone called Wu-Tang Clan the best rap group ever. In 2004, NME hailed them as one of the most influential groups of the last ten years, All in Together Now was never signed to a record label. See, me, GZA, and ODB had a crew called FOI, Force of the Imperial Master, nah mean. We made a song, called All in Together Now, which became famous on tapes throughout Brooklyn, Downtown Staten Island, New York, I remember Biz Markie, when he was famous and I wasnt famous, and he was like, Yo. Your song with Ason Unique and The Specialist, so we never got signed as a group back then. We never had a record deal under that title. The Wu-Tang Clan was assembled in the early 1990s with RZA as the de facto leader, Method Man – who met RZA in 1990 after hearing a tape the producer recorded as Prince Rakeem – recalled, I went round his house. We went to the basement and I guess they was showin off cos I was there, thered be RZA and his brother Devon on the decks. RZA was cuttin, Devond go cut off the light, then RZAs go cut on the light, Devond be cutting and they was doing some wild shit, man. And Ol Dirty was there and hed echo every rhyme of RZAs while beatboxing and that was the beginning of Wu-Tang. RZA and Ol Dirty Bastard adopted the name for the group after the film Shaolin, the groups debut album loosely adopted a Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang theme, dividing the album into Shaolin and Wu-Tang sections. This album turned out to be acclaimed, and to date is regarded as one of the greatest hip hop/rap albums of all time. And all these labels still put Razor Sharp Records on the credits Wu Tang was a financial movement, so what do you wanna diversify. RZA was the first to follow up on the success of Enter the Wu-Tang with a project, founding the Gravediggaz with Prince Paul and Frukwan. The Gravediggaz released 6 Feet Deep in August 1994, which one of the best known works to emerge from hip hops small subgenre of horrorcore

15.
Gravediggaz
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Gravediggaz is an American hip hop group from New York City, known for its dark sense of humor and abrasive, menacing soundscapes. The group was formed in 1991, bringing together Prince Paul, Frukwan, Poetic and it came about largely due to the efforts of Prince Paul. The group pioneered the small hip-hop subgenre of horrorcore, the groups first album was originally to be titled Niggamortis, however, this potentially risqué title was changed to 6 Feet Deep for the American market, it was released on August 9,1994. In 1995, the three rapping members released a collaborative EP titled The Hell EP with UK trip hop artist Tricky. The second full-length Gravediggaz album The Pick, the Sickle and the Shovel was less humorous, dealing more with social and political issues, it also used calmer and more conventional production. Prince Paul played a smaller role in the making of this album, with many of the production duties now taken care of by RZA. A bootleg Gravediggaz album surfaced in 1998, called Scenes From The Graveyard and it featured seven unreleased tracks plus some remixes from the first two albums. Around 2000, Gravediggaz recruited DJ Diamond J. Poetic died of cancer in July 2001. Frukwan stated in an interview not long after Poetics death that a new album using leftover Poetic material would be released, Nightmare in A-Minor, the third official album for Gravediggaz, came out in 2001, it featured two of the original members, Poetic and Frukwan. This album was their darkest work yet, including references to Poetics struggle with cancer. Although RZA did not take part in the album, some Wu-Tang Clan affiliates such as 4th Disciple, True Master, the album was mostly produced by Poetic and Frukwan. A different version of the album was released in 2002, for some of the tracks created by Poetic were replaced or altered. In 2003 Frukwan released his solo album, Life. The fourth Gravediggaz album 6 Feet Under was released in 2004 by Cleopatra Records and featured songs from Nightmare in A-Minor, according to Frukwan, he had nothing to do with the release and claimed that song titles were changed without permission, making it an unauthorized release. In 2010, Gravediggaz recorded a new song,2 More Cups of Blood, in 2011, it was announced that the group had been recording new tracks involving Shabazz The Disciple & Killah Priest. According to Frukwan, the name means digging graves of the mentally dead. The groups lyrics mix black humor, criticism regarding the industry, cartoonish violence reminiscent of the Geto Boys. The group pioneered the horrorcore genre,6 Feet Deep The Pick, the Sickle and the Shovel Nightmare in A-Minor 6 Feet Under Gravediggaz at discogs Frukwan website

16.
John Frusciante
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John Anthony Frusciante is an American guitarist, singer, producer and composer. He is best known as the former guitarist of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, from 1988 until 1992 and he recorded five studio albums with them. Frusciante has a solo career, having released eleven solo albums and five EPs, his recordings include elements ranging from experimental rock and ambient music to new wave. In 2015, Frusciante released his debut acid house album under his alias, at the age of eighteen, he joined the Red Hot Chili Peppers, first appearing on the bands 1989 album, Mothers Milk. The groups follow-up album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, was a breakthrough success, Frusciante became overwhelmed by the bands new popularity and quit in 1992. He became a recluse and entered a period of drug addiction, during which he released his first solo recordings, Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt. In 1998, he successfully completed drug rehabilitation and rejoined the Red Hot Chili Peppers and their next album, Californication would eventually go on to sell 16 million copies. His album To Record Only Water for Ten Days was made in 2001, a fourth album with the Chili Peppers, By the Way was released in 2002. On a creative spree, Frusciante released six albums in 2004. 2006 saw the release of his fifth and final album with the Chili Peppers, in 2009, Frusciante released The Empyrean, which features Flea and Josh Klinghoffer, and announced he had again parted ways with the Chili Peppers. He was ranked as number 42 in Gibsons list of the 50 Best Guitarists of All Time and he was voted The Best Guitarist of the Last 30 Years in a 2010 BBC poll called The Axe Factor. Frusciante was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers on April 14,2012 although he did not attend the ceremony, Frusciante was born in Queens, New York on March 5,1970. His father, John Sr. is a Juilliard-trained pianist, Frusciantes family moved to Tucson, Arizona, and then Florida, where his father served as a Broward County judge until October 2010. His parents separated, and he and his moved to Santa Monica. Frusciante is of Italian descent, his paternal great-grandfather Generoso Frusciante emigrated from Benevento, a year later, Frusciante and his mother moved to Mar Vista, Los Angeles with his new stepfather who, he says, really supported me and made me feel good about being an artist. Like many young people in the area, he became involved in the L. A. punk rock scene. At nine he was infatuated with the Germs, wearing out several copies of their record, by ten, he had taught himself how to play most of s songs. He has stated that he did not really know what he was doing, Frusciante began studying guitarists like Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, David Gilmour and Jimi Hendrix at eleven

17.
James Blake (musician)
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James Blake Litherland, known as James Blake, is an English singer, songwriter, musician and record producer from London. He first received recognition in 2010 for a trio of dubstep-influenced EPs, and his second studio album Overgrown was released in 2013 and was awarded the Mercury Prize. His third studio album The Colour in Anything was released in 2016, Blake has also released remix work under the moniker Harmonimix. Blake received his second Grammy Award nomination at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards for Best New Artist, at the 2014 Brit Awards, Blake was nominated for the Brit Award for British Male Solo Artist. James Blake is the son of musician James Litherland, and showed a strong interest and he received classical training in piano as a child, and completed primary education at Grange Park Primary School, Winchmore Hill and secondary education at The Latymer School, Edmonton. Later on, he attended Goldsmiths, University of London, where he received a degree in Popular Music, while at school, Blake and friends hosted a series of Bass Society music nights that featured UK artists such as Distance, Skream and Benga. Blake began his career by releasing his debut 12 record, entitled Air & Lack Thereof in the United Kingdom during July 2009. Having been released on the imprint record label, Hemlock, the became a favourite of BBC Radio 1 DJ Gilles Peterson. Soon after the release of the record Blake was invited by Peterson to do a mix on his international show. As a second-year composition assignment for his studies at Goldsmiths, he submitted the soon-to-be-released Klavierwerke EP, a third EP, entitled CMYK, was released through R&S Records during 2010. The title track, CMYK was selected by BBC Radio 1 DJ Nick Grimshaw as his Record of the Week, on 29 September 2010, Zane Lowe selected Blakes cover version of Limit to Your Love as his Hottest Record in the World. The song was written and originally recorded by Feist and appeared on her studio album, the single was released in the United Kingdom on 28 November 2010, where it debuted on the UK Singles Chart at number 47. It was also revealed on 15 December 2010 that Blake had been made the runner-up behind singer-songwriter Jessie J at the BRIT Awards Critics Choice, in January 2011, Blake was awarded Single of the Year for CMYK at Gilles Petersons Worldwide Awards. Blake revealed in late December 2010 that his album would be self-titled, only days after the original announcement was made, the album was leaked onto the internet. On 9 January 2011, The Wilhelm Scream was trailed as the second single. In February 2011, James Blake first appeared on the cover of the publication The Fader and these included Deeds, Olivia Kept, and Evening Fell Hard for Us. During the final weeks of 2012, James Blake performed three intimate shows where he debuted new songs, later that year, Blake released both the Enough Thunder and Love What Happened Here EPs in 2011. These EPs, noticeably more structured than his previous releases, featured R&B-tinged work as opposed to the electronic style found on CMYK

18.
Ol' Dirty Bastard
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Russell Tyrone Jones, better known under his stage name Ol Dirty Bastard, was an American rapper and producer. He was one of the members of the Wu-Tang Clan. After establishing the Wu-Tang Clan, Ol Dirty Bastard went on to pursue a solo career. However, his success was hampered by frequent legal troubles. He died on November 13,2004, of a drug overdose, before his death, Ol Dirty Bastard recorded his third solo album, which remains unreleased. Ol Dirty Bastard was noted for his outrageously profane, free-associative rhymes delivered in a distinctive half-rapped and his stage name was derived from the 1980 martial arts film Ol Dirty and the Bastard. Russell Jones was born on November 15,1968 in Brooklyn and he and his cousins Robert Diggs and Gary Grice shared a taste for rap music and martial arts-style movies. Jones, Diggs, and Grice formed the group Force of the Imperial Master and they eventually added six more members to their group, calling it the Wu-Tang Clan. The group released their debut album Enter the Wu-Tang in 1993, Ol Dirty Bastards solo career began March 28,1995. His first solo album, Return to the 36 Chambers, The Dirty Version, spawned the hit singles Brooklyn Zoo and Shimmy Shimmy Ya, in this same year, Ol Dirty Bastard collaborated with Mariah Carey for the Fantasy Remix. The entire incident was filmed by an MTV camera crew and was broadcast nationwide and his caseworker revoked his eligibility after seeing the MTV segment, and the incident was viewed as an example of the welfare abuses that led to the significant welfare reforms enacted in 1996. In 1997, Ol Dirty Bastard appeared on the Wu-Tang Clans second and most commercially successful work and he had fewer appearances on this album than the groups debut, contributing to one solo track, three verses, one hook, and a spoken introduction/refrain. In February 1998, Ol Dirty Bastard witnessed a car accident from the window of his Brooklyn recording studio and he and a friend ran to the accident scene and organized about a dozen onlookers, who assisted in lifting the 1996 Ford Mustang—rescuing a 4-year-old girl from the wreckage. She was taken to a hospital with first and second degree burns, using a false name, Ol Dirty Bastard visited the girl in the hospital frequently until he was spotted by members of the media. As Ol Dirty Bastard took the stage to a round of applause, he asked the audience, Please calm down and its nice that I went and bought me an outfit today that costed a lot of money today, you know what I mean. Cause I figured that Wu-Tang was gonna win, I dont know how you all see it, but when it comes to the children, Wu-Tang is for the children. Puffy is good, but Wu-Tang is the best, Okay, I want you all to know that this is ODB, and I love you all. The incident was covered in the mainstream media

19.
GZA
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Gary Grice, better known by his stage names GZA and The Genius, is an American rapper and songwriter. A founding member of the hip hop group the Wu-Tang Clan, GZA is known as the spiritual head. He has appeared on his fellow Clan members solo projects, and since the release of his acclaimed solo album Liquid Swords. An analysis of GZAs lyrics found that he has the second largest vocabulary in hip hop music and he teamed up with an education group to promote science education in New York City through hip hop. Gary Grice developed an interest in hip-hop by attending block parties as a child in the early 1970s and he was involved in breakdance, graffiti, and DJing. Early on he developed an interest in writing, studying Mother Goose, in 1974-76 he listened to The Last Poets, however he was attracted by profanity rather than content, and didnt understand the underlying messages until many years later. The Last Poets, as well as songs by The Isley Brothers, the Commodores, later on, he began to listen to hip hop and R&B, for example by Secret Weapon and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. He formed a group with his cousins, Robert Diggs and Russell Jones. At the time he didnt like the sound of his voice and he left school in the 10th grade, but nurtured his affection for science as he developed his skills as a lyricist. After some years of this, GZA was signed to Cold Chillin Records as a solo artist under the name The Genius. Albums beat selection is similar to the classic sound of the early 1990s. At the time he worked as a bicycle messenger, in 1992, GZA joined the Wu-Tang Clan, a group of nine, formed by his cousin RZA. GZA had some appearances on the groups debut album, Enter the Wu-Tang, including a solo track. This, combined with appearances on other Clan members albums such as Return to the 36 Chambers, The Dirty Version, according to Method Man, we form like Voltron and GZA happens to be the head. It was released on November 7 by Geffen Records, the albums complex composition included dialogue sampled from kung fu film Shogun Assassin. The album was met with reviews and sold well. It is considered to be one of the best albums from the Wu-Tang camp and it peaked at the #9 spot on the Billboard 200 chart and #2 on the Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart. On October 8,2015, the Recording Industry Association of America announced that the album had earned a Platinum certification for having more than 1 million copies

20.
Horrorcore
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Horrorcore is a subgenre of hip hop music based on horror-themed and often darkly transgressive lyrical content and imagery. While exaggerated violence and the supernatural are common in horrorcore, the genre also frequently presents more realistic yet still disturbing portrayals of mental illness, the term horrorcore was popularized by openly horror-influenced hip hop groups such as Flatlinerz and Gravediggaz. The lyrics are inspired by horror movies over moody, hardcore beats. According to rapper Mars, If you take Stephen King or Wes Craven and you throw them on a rap beat, Horrorcore was described by Entertainment Weekly in 1995 as a blend of hardcore rap and bloodthirsty metal. The lyrical content of horrorcore is sometimes described as being similar to that of death metal, Horrorcore artists often feature dark imagery in their music videos and base musical elements of songs upon horror film scores. Following this were groups like Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, and songs like Dana Danes Nightmares, which spun more frightening, imaginative narratives. Since 1983, Ganxsta N. I. P. has performed horror-themed lyrics which he described as Psycho Rap, Ganxsta N. I. P. has written lyrics for other groups, including Geto Boys. While Kool Keith later claimed to have invented horrorcore, the first use of the term appeared on the group KMCs 1991 album Three Men With the Power of Ten and he said that the Geto Boys continued to pioneer the style with its second release, Grip It. On That Other Level, with such as Mind of a Lunatic. In 1994, according to Icons of Hip Hop, horrorcore gained prominence in 1994 with the release of Flatlinerz U. S. A. and Gravediggaz 6 Feet Deep. The genre is not popular with audiences as a whole, however, performers such as Insane Clown Posse. Also, horrorcore rapper Eminem sold millions of copies with his horrorcore albums The Slim Shady LP, the Slim Shady LP was certified 3x platinum in October 1999 and 4x platinum in November 2000. The Marshall Mathers LP sold 1,760,049 copies in its first week of being released and was certified diamond, Horrorcore has thrived in Internet culture and sustains an annual super show in Detroit called Wickedstock. Every Halloween since 2003, Horrorcore artists worldwide get together online, according to the January 2004 BBC documentary Underground USA, the subgenre has a massive following across the US and is spreading to Europe. Rolling Stone in 2007 referred to it as a trend that generated more shlock than shock. New York Magazine put horrorcore in the spotlight by listing off the ten most horrifying horrorcore rappers, spin asked Violent J of Insane Clown Posse to list off his favorite horrorcore songs. Songs included, The Dayton Familys Whats On My Mind, Bone Thugs-N-Harmonys Mr. Ouija, Necros Billie Jean 2005, and Michael Jacksons Thriller

21.
Kill Bill: Volume 1
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Kill Bill, Volume 1 is a 2003 American martial arts film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Uma Thurman as the Bride, who swears revenge on a team of assassins and her journey takes her to Japan, where she battles the Tokyo yakuza. Tarantino conceived Kill Bill as a homage to grindhouse cinema including martial arts films, samurai cinema, blaxploitation films and it features an anime sequence animated by Production I. G. It is the first of two Kill Bill films made in a production, Vol 1 was released on October 10,2003. The films were set for a single release, but the film. It became Tarantinos highest-grossing film up to point, earning over $180 million at the box office. A woman in a dress, the Bride, lies wounded in a chapel in El Paso, Texas. She tells their leader, Bill, that she is carrying his baby, four years later, having survived the attack, the Bride goes to the home of Vernita Green, planning to kill her. Both women were members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, which has since disbanded and they engage in a knife fight, but are interrupted by the arrival of Vernitas young daughter, Nikki. Not wanting to kill Vernita in front of Nikki, the Bride agrees to meet Vernita at night to settle the matter, the Bride dodges the shot and throws a knife into Vernitas chest, killing her. Four and a half earlier, police investigate the massacre at the wedding chapel. The sheriff discovers the Bride is alive but comatose, in the present, the Bride awakens from her four-year coma and is horrified to find she is no longer pregnant. She kills a worker who has been raping her while she was comatose, takes his truck. Resolving to kill Bill and all four members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, she picks her first target, O-Ren Ishii, now the leader of the Tokyo yakuza. O-Rens parents were murdered by the yakuza when she was a child, she took vengeance on the yakuza boss, the Bride travels to Okinawa, Japan, to obtain a sword from legendary swordsmith Hattori Hanzō, who has sworn never to forge a sword again. After learning that her target is Bill, his former student, the Bride tracks down O-Ren at a Tokyo restaurant, the House of Blue Leaves, and defeats her yakuza army, including the elite Crazy 88 and O-Rens bodyguard, schoolgirl Gogo Yubari. She duels with O-Ren in the restaurants Japanese garden, during the duel O-Ren first mocks and then apologizes to the Bride, who accepts. They continue and the Bride then tearfully slices the top of O-Rens head off with a sword stroke, afterwards, she tortures Sofie Fatale, O-Rens assistant and Bills protege for information about Bill, and leaves her alive to pass on a message and a threat

22.
Kill Bill: Volume 2
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Kill Bill, Volume 2 is a 2004 American martial arts film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Uma Thurman as the Bride, who continues her campaign of revenge against the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad and their leader Bill, Tarantino conceived Kill Bill as a homage to grindhouse cinema including martial arts films, samurai cinema, blaxploitation films, and spaghetti westerns. It is the second of two Kill Bill films produced simultaneously, the first, Kill Bill, Volume 1, was released in 2003. The films were set for a single release, but the film. Like Volume 1, Volume 2 received positive reviews and was a commercial success, the pregnant Bride and her groom rehearse their wedding. Bill, the Brides former lover, the father of her child, the Bride survives and swears revenge. Four years later, the Bride has already assassinated Deadly Vipers Vernita Green and O-Ren Ishii and she goes to the trailer of Bills brother and Deadly Viper Budd, planning to ambush him. Budd has been warned by Bill of her approach, he shoots her in the chest with a shotgun blast of rock salt and he calls Elle Driver, another former Deadly Viper, and arranges to sell her the Brides unique sword for a million dollars. He seals the Bride inside a coffin and buries her alive, Bill takes the Bride to Meis temple for training. Mei ridicules her and makes her training a torment, but she gains his respect, in the present, the Bride uses Meis martial arts techniques to break out of the coffin and claw her way to the surface. Elle arrives at Budds trailer and kills him with a black mamba hidden with the money for the sword and she calls Bill and tells him that the Bride has killed Budd, and that Elle has killed the Bride. She uses the Brides real name, Beatrix Kiddo, as Elle exits the trailer, Beatrix ambushes her and they fight. Elle, who was taught by Mei, taunts Beatrix by revealing that she poisoned Mei in retribution for his plucking out her eye. Beatrix plucks out Elles remaining eye and leaves her screaming in the trailer with the black mamba, Beatrix tracks Bill to the Mexican countryside and discovers that their daughter B. B. is still alive, now aged four. She finds her with Bill in a hotel and spends the evening with them, after she puts B. B. to bed, Bill shoots Beatrix with a dart containing truth serum and interrogates her. She recounts a mission in which she discovered she was pregnant and she disables Bill with Meis Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique, which she kept secret. Bill makes his peace with her, takes five steps and dies, Beatrix leaves with B. B. to start a new life. Uma Thurman as The Bride / Beatrix Kiddo, A former member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad who is described as the deadliest woman in the world and she is also known as Arlene in the beginning of the film

23.
The Man with the Iron Fists
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The Man with the Iron Fists is a 2012 American martial arts film directed by RZA and written by RZA and Eli Roth. The film stars RZA, Russell Crowe, Cung Le, Lucy Liu, Byron Mann, Rick Yune, Dave Bautista, and Jamie Chung. Set in 19th century China, the story follows a series of lone warriors who are forced to unite to defeat a common foe, development began in 2005 when RZA shared his idea for the film with Roth. After nearly two years of development, Roth and RZA secured financial backing in May 2010, filming began in December 2010 on a $15 million budget and concluded by March 2011. The film was shot in Shanghai and at locations in China. RZA and Howard Drossin composed the musical score, and RZA produced its soundtrack. A series of concerts featuring music from the soundtrack were held to promote the film, the film was released in North America on November 2,2012. The performances of Crowe and Mann were well received, the film earned $19 million at the box office. In nineteenth century China, Jungle Village is home to several warring clans, the village blacksmith creates deadly weapons for the clans, intending to use his payments to purchase the freedom of his lover Lady Silk, and leave the village. The regions governor tasks the Lion Clans leader Gold Lion with protecting a shipment of gold that must pass through the village. Gold is betrayed by his lieutenants Silver Lion and Bronze Lion and they use the chaos ensuing from a fight with the Hyena Clan to allow their co-conspirator Poison Dagger—the governors aide—to assassinate Gold, after which Silver becomes the Lions leader. Golds son Zen-Yi learns of his fathers murder and sets off to the village to seek revenge, the Emperors undercover emissary Jack Knife arrives in the village to monitor the gold and takes up residence in the Pink Blossom, a brothel run by Madam Blossom, Lady Silks madame. Silver sends members of the Rodent clan to kill Zen-Yi before he can reach the village, the mercenary Brass Body arrives in the village and meets with Silver, he is sent to kill Zen-Yi. The blacksmith meets with Silk in the brothel and delivers the final payment needed to free her, after arriving in the village, Zen-Yi and his men are confronted by Brass and find that they cannot physically harm him because his skin turns to metal on impact. Brass beats Zen-Yi and destroys his blade-laden armor, Zen-Yis last surviving man sacrifices himself to pull a canopy support beam loose, burying Brass under heavy stone. The blacksmith is watching the fight, he rescues Zen-Yi and helps him recover as penance for crafting the weapon that killed Zen-Yis father, meanwhile, the gold shipment arrives in the village, accompanied by two skilled warriors, the Geminis. The Lions soon confront the Geminis and their men, and in the fight, Poison Dagger assassinates the Geminis. Jack later arrives to investigate the incident and learns that the Geminis were poisoned with mercury-tipped weapons, the Lions theft prompts the governor to send his Jackal troops to recover the shipment or destroy the village

24.
American Gangster (film)
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American Gangster is a 2007 American biographical crime film directed and produced by Ridley Scott and written by Steven Zaillian. The film stars Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington in their first lead acting roles together since 1995s Virtuosity, the film also co-stars Ted Levine, John Ortiz, Josh Brolin, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Norman Reedus, Ruby Dee, Lymari Nadal and Cuba Gooding Jr. Development for the film began in 2000, when Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment purchased the rights to a New York magazine story about the rise. Two years later, screenwriter Steven Zaillian introduced a 170-page scriptment to Scott, original production plans were to commence in Toronto for budget purposes, however, production eventually relocated permanently to New York City. Because of the rising budget Universal canceled production in 2004. After negotiations with Terry George, it was revived with Scott at the helm in March 2005. Principal photography commenced over a period of five months from July to December 2006, filming took place throughout New York City, American Gangster premiered in New York on October 20,2007, and was released in the United States and Canada on November 2. The film was received by most film critics, and grossed over US$266.5 million worldwide. In 1968, Frank Lucas is the man of Harlem gangster Ellsworth Bumpy Johnson. When Johnson dies of an attack, Lucas takes control of the Harlem crime scene. After handing in almost $1 million that he found in a mobsters car, after his exiled and addicted partner overdoses on a potent brand of heroin called Blue Magic, Captain Lou Toback puts Roberts in charge of a task force that targets local suppliers. Lucas buys Blue Magic directly from producers in Thailand and smuggles it into the U. S. through returning Vietnam War servicemen and his low overhead allows him to eventually wholesale Blue Magic to most the dealers in the New York area. With this monopoly, Lucas expands his control to nightclubs, casinos and he buys a mansion for his mother and recruits his five brothers, including Huey and Turner, as lieutenants to spread his empire. During his rise to becoming Harlems crime boss, Lucas falls in love with Eva, as Lucas business prospers, he makes a point of operating quietly and dressing with a modest conservatism both as a sign of strength and to avoid attracting police attention. Also, he stays away from the drugs to avoid making decisions under the influence. Lucas must also compete with local crime figure Nicky Barnes, a young gun trying to take over Harlem who has been diluting Lucas Blue Magic, after the Fall of Saigon cuts off Lucas supply, he is forced to rely on the other crime rings. Roberts detectives witness Frank Lucas cousin and driver shoot a woman, the gathered information allows Roberts and his task force to identify and search one of the last planes carrying Lucas stock, discovering Blue Magic in the coffins of dead returning servicemen. With this evidence they obtain a warrant to follow the drugs into Newarks projects, in the ensuing shootout, Steve Lucas, Frank Lucas young nephew who gave up a promising career for the New York Yankees to join Lucas crime family, is killed

25.
Brick Mansions
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Brick Mansions is a 2014 English-language French-Canadian crime-thriller film starring Paul Walker, David Belle and RZA. The film was directed by Camille Delamarre and written by Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen and it is a remake of the 2004 French film District 13, in which Belle had also starred. Brick Mansions was released on April 25,2014, five months after Paul Walkers death on November 30,2013 and has a dedication to him at the start of the credits and this is Walkers last completed film before his death, but not his last film appearance. At the time of his death, he was almost done filming Furious 7 which was released on April 3,2015, in 2018, in a dystopian Detroit, abandoned brick mansions left from better times now house only the most dangerous criminals. Unable to control the crime, the police have constructed a colossal containment wall around this area to protect the rest of the city, for undercover cop Damien Collier, every day is a battle against corruption. For French-Caribbean ex-convict Lino, every day is a fight to live an honest life, eventually, with the help of Lino and Tremaine, Damien realizes that his father was killed by his fellow officers and that the mayor was behind the plot. Damien, Lino and Tremaine confront the mayor and manage to prove his true intentions and have him arrested, Brick Mansions is welcomed back into the city, with Damien and Lino continuing their friendship. Following Walkers death, the North American release was scheduled for February, on February 62014, Relativity and EuropaCorp announced a move to April 25,2014 as a release date for the film, along with paying the cost of the film’s world premiere and distribution. The first official trailer was released on February 13,2014, featuring the DJ Snake, the second full trailer was released on March 20,2014. Reviews for Brick Mansions have been generally negative, Rotten Tomatoes gives a 26% rating based on 88 reviews. The sites consensus states, Choppily edited and largely bereft of plot, Metacritic gives the film a 40/100 rating, based on 28 critics, indicating mixed or average reviews. However, some critics have been more positive, isaac Feldberg of We Got This Covered called the film a highly entertaining action thriller. Varietys Justin Chang added that the film was propulsively entertaining, District 13, Ultimatum – sequel to the original. The film, directed by Patrick Alessandrin and written and produced by Luc Besson, sees parkour artists David Belle and Cyril Raffaelli reprising their roles of Leïto. Brick Mansions at the Internet Movie Database Brick Mansions at Box Office Mojo Brick Mansions at Rotten Tomatoes Brick Mansions at Metacritic

26.
Gang Related (TV series)
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Gang Related is an American action drama television series that aired on Fox from May 22 to August 14,2014. The network placed the series order on May 8,2013. On September 2,2014, Fox cancelled the series and he was born in a poor town in Mexico, and moved to the United States illegally with his new family at that time. Jay Hernandez as Daniel Acosta, son of the Acosta family who is working as an investment banker and is Ryans childhood best friend, RZA as Cassius Green, DEA Agent and Ryans second partner. Sung Kang as Tae Kim, FBI Agent and Veronicas partner and he has a sister, who suffered a brain injury and lives in a long-term care facility. Inbar Lavi as Veronika Vee Dotsen, ICE Agent and Taes partner and she was stuck by a needle and is uncertain if she will be HIV positive. Her brother, Anton, is in prison for life, rey Gallegos as Carlos Acosta, older son of Acosta family who is a lieutenant of the Los Angelicos gang. Shantel VanSanten as Jessica Jess Mary Chapel, Assistant District Attorney of Los Angeles County who is also Sam Chapels daughter, Cliff Curtis as Javier Acosta, Head of the Los Angelicos and patriarch of the Acosta family. His parents were working at a restaurant when it burned down. Javier and other still in the basement escaped, but not his parents. Terry OQuinn as Sam Chapel, Head of the LAPD Gang Task Force, Chapel goes rogue at times to achieve justice. She was Ryans girlfriend before he joined the Army and her name is tattooed on his arm. When he came back, she was with Daniel, amaury Nolasco as Matias, killer working for the Metas. Hes famous for using his signature sledgehammer in executions, reviews for the show were mixed. It currently holds a 42% approval rating with a score of 5. 7/10 on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. The consensus states, Gang Related focuses more on being dark and edgy than delivering an original narrative and it has also received mixed critical reception on Metacritic, with a Metascore of 52, signifying mixed or average reviews. Dorothy Rabinowitz at The Wall Street Journal wrote, the writing is sharp, in contrast, The Hollywood Reporters Tim Goodman wrote, it’s pretty clear right away that you’re dealing with a pile of clichés that, pushed together and financed, can never be more than dreadful. In January 2013, Fox announced that it had received an order for the project

27.
Californication (TV series)
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Californication is an American comedy-drama television series created by Tom Kapinos, which aired for seven seasons on Showtime from August 13,2007, to June 29,2014. The show follows New Yorker Hank Moody, a troubled novelist who moves to California and his drinking, womanizing, and drug abuse complicate his relationships with his longtime lover Karen and their daughter Becca. Hank struggles to find purpose in his life as he passes up multiple opportunities, the shows other main characters are Hanks best friend and agent, Charlie Runkle, and Charlies wife, Marcy. Recurring themes are sex, drugs, and rock and roll, all of which are featured regularly, the show has been nominated for many awards and won several, including winning two Emmy Awards and one Golden Globe Award. The series revolves around Hank Moody, a novelist plagued by alcoholism and he blames his longtime writers block on reasons ranging from the hedonism of Los Angeles to the departure of his partner Karen. The show was renewed for a season on September 7,2007. The Season 1 finale, titled The Last Waltz, originally aired on Showtime on October 29,2007, Season 2 began filming in April 2008, and was underway as of June 2008. The premiere episode of Season 2 aired September 28,2008, the first season was released on DVD in the US on June 17,2008. Showtime renewed Californication for a season, which premiered on Sunday September 27,2009 at 10 pm. The show is laced with rock culture references and it frequently alludes to Warren Zevon and featured Henry Rollins in a guest appearance, some episode titles, such as Filthy Lucre and Turn the Page, allude to album and song names. Hanks lawyer in Season 4 is called Abby Rhodes, his first three novels, South of Heaven, Seasons in the Abyss and God Hates Us All, are all named after Slayer albums. The books Crack The Sky and Blood Mountain by Richard Bates are also the names of two Mastodon albums, the movie based on God Hates Us All, A Crazy Little Thing Called Love, is named after the song by the rock band Queen from their album The Game. The segment before the Opening Theme is the intro to The Stooges song, Season 1 followed Hank and the other main characters in the months leading up to Karens planned marriage to Bill, a Los Angeles publisher. Hank spends most of his drinking and not writing. One day he picks up a woman in a bookstore, after they have sex. Mia proceeds to harass Hank during his visits to his family and she uses the threat of illegal sex charges to extort stories from him that she passes off as her own for her high-school creative-writing class. The death of Hanks father drives Hank on an alcohol-fueled binge, after the funeral, Hank stays in New York to finish a manuscript for a new novella. On Karens and Bills wedding day, Hank chooses to be unselfish, but that evening, as he and Becca leave the reception, Karen runs out and jumps into his car, presumably to resume their life together

28.
Soul music
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Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It combines elements of African-American gospel music, rhythm and blues, Soul music became popular for dancing and listening in the United States, where record labels such as Motown, Atlantic and Stax were influential during the Civil Rights Movement. Soul also became popular around the world, directly influencing rock music, catchy rhythms, stressed by handclaps and extemporaneous body moves, are an important feature of soul music. Other characteristics are a call and response between the lead vocalist and the chorus and a tense vocal sound. The style also occasionally uses improvisational additions, twirls and auxiliary sounds, Soul music reflected the African-American identity and it stressed the importance of an African-American culture. The new-found African-American consciousness led to new styles of music, which boasted pride in being black, Soul music dominated the U. S. R&B chart in the 1960s, and many recordings crossed over into the pop charts in the U. S. By 1968, the music genre had begun to splinter. Some soul artists developed funk music, while other singers and groups developed slicker, more sophisticated, by the early 1970s, soul music had been influenced by psychedelic rock and other genres, leading to psychedelic soul. The United States saw the development of neo soul around 1994, there are also several other subgenres and offshoots of soul music. The term soul had been used among African-American musicians to emphasize the feeling of being an African-American in the United States, according to another source, Soul music was the result of the urbanization and commercialization of rhythm and blues in the 60s. The phrase soul music itself, referring to music with secular lyrics, is first attested in 1961. The term soul in African-American parlance has connotations of African-American pride, gospel groups in the 1940s and 1950s occasionally used the term as part of their name. The jazz style that derived from gospel came to be called soul jazz, important innovators whose recordings in the 1950s contributed to the emergence of soul music included Clyde McPhatter, Hank Ballard, and Etta James. Ray Charles is often cited as popularizing the genre with his string of hits starting with 1954s I Got a Woman. Singer Bobby Womack said, Ray was the genius and he turned the world onto soul music. Charles was open in acknowledging the influence of Pilgrim Travelers vocalist Jesse Whitaker on his singing style, little Richard and James Brown were equally influential. Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson are also acknowledged as soul forefathers. Cooke became popular as the singer of gospel group The Soul Stirrers

29.
The Source (magazine)
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The Source is a United States-based monthly full-color magazine covering hip-hop music, politics, and culture, founded in 1988. It is the worlds longest running rap periodical, being founded as a newsletter in 1988, the Source was originally started by David Mays, a Harvard University student in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mays decided to hire his friends, Jonathan Shecter, James Bernard and Ed Young. At the time, Mays handled duties as the publisher for the magazine, the magazines offices were moved from Massachusetts to New York City in 1990, a move that was made with the intention to expand the magazine into a mainstream market publication. The magazines annual awards show, known as The Source Awards, the Lifetime Achievement Award is the highest award given to an emcee who has contributed his/her time to succeeding in the hip-hop music industry. The Source also releases an album of hip-hop hits. The magazine expanded overseas with a French-language version, alongside The Source Latino, the company invested in mobile phones and ringtones under The Source Mobile Channel moniker, in which subscribers are offered their favorite choice of hip-hop ringtones. The Source also invested in its own urban clothing apparel company, the Source announced in a press conference that the magazine was in possession of an old tape in which a young Eminem was rapping racial slurs against Black women. For his part, Eminem did not deny making the tapes and he apologized for making the tapes but also exhorted the public to consider the origin of the allegations. Nevertheless, Eminem sued The Source for defamation and copyright infringement, the federal courts ruled in The Sources favor, and allowed a limited distribution of the tapes music and lyrics under Fair Use law. Mays and Benzino both countered the withdrawal of the lawsuit, calling it a cowardly move and they both claimed they could finally expose the truth about Eminem and planned to eventually release the racist tapes in a future magazine. It devoted its February 2004 issue to the discovery of the tapes, later, Benzino and The Source would urge video and radio stations to ban Eminems video, Just Lose It, and issue an apology to Michael Jackson. The video depicts Jackson in a light and the publication wanted to boycott the rapper. In spite of their efforts, BET was the network to ban the video. BET claimed Benzino was not the reason for the banning, Eminem released the single Like Toy Soldiers from Encore, in which he states hell walk away from it all before it gets any further. Benzino responded with the track, Look Into My Eyes. In 2005, after Kimberly Osorio had been fired, Mays. That same year he resigned after he was ordered to lower the rating of Little Brothers The Minstrel Show from four-and-a-half to four

30.
Vibe (magazine)
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Vibe is an American music and entertainment magazine founded by producer Quincy Jones. The publication predominantly features R&B and hip hop artists, actors. The magazines target demographic is young, urban followers of hip hop culture. In 2014, the magazine moved online-only, Quincy Jones launched Vibe in 1993, in partnership with Time Inc. Originally, the publication had been called Volume before co-founding editor, though hip hop mogul Russell Simmons was rumored to be an initial partner, publisher Len Burnett revealed in a March 2007 interview that Simmons clashed with editor-in-chief Jonathan Van Meter. Miller Publishing bought Vibe in 1996, and shortly afterward bought Spin, private equity firm, Wicks Group, bought the magazine in 2006. Jonathan Van Meters successors were Alan Light, Danyel Smith, Emil Wilbikin, Mimi Valdes, and finally Danyel Smith again. On June 30,2009, it was announced that Vibe was shutting its doors and ceasing publication immediately, although according to Essence, after shutting down, private equity investment fund InterMedia Partners bought Vibe magazine. They added Uptown magazine to Vibes parent company, Vibe Holdings, ronald Burkle and Magic Johnson later invested in the company. Vibe Holdings merged with BlackBook Media to form Vibe Media in 2012, on April 25,2013 it was announced that Vibe magazine along with vibe. com and vibevixen. com had been sold to Spin Media for an undisclosed sum. Instead, they cut the frequency to quarterly. In December 2016, Eldridge Industries acquired SpinMedia via the Hollywood Reporter-Billboard Media Group for an undisclosed amount, Vibe magazine was known for the creative direction of their covers. R&B singer Mary J. Blige repeatedly made the cover of Vibe, trio TLC were photographed for the cover in firefighters gear, referencing the fact that member Lisa Lopes burned down the house of then-boyfriend and NFL star Andre Rison. The first non-photograph cover of Vibe was an illustration of late singer Aaliyah by well-known artist/illustrator Alvaro, this was Aaliyahs very first appearance on the cover as well. Other famous cover subjects are, Trey Songz, Brandy, Snoop Dogg, Mariah Carey, Beyoncé, Amerie, Jennifer Lopez, Keyshia Cole, Janet Jackson, Lil Wayne, The Fugees, Eminem, T. I. R. Electro-rapper Kesha made Vibe history when she appeared on the cover in October 2012, the magazine also devoted several pages to photo spreads displaying high-end designer clothing as well as sportswear by urban labels such as Rocawear and Fubu. Vibe made a consistent effort to feature models of all ethnicities in these pages, former editor Emil Wilbikin was frequently credited with styling those pages and keeping fashion in the forefront of the magazines identity during the early 2000s. Many clothing brands created or linked to hip hop celebrities, such as Sean Combs Sean John, Nellys Apple Bottoms, in the September 2003 issue commemorating ten years of publication, the magazine created different covers using black and white portraits of its most popular cover subjects

31.
NME
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New Musical Express is a British music journalism magazine published since 1952. It was the first British paper to include a singles chart, in the 1970s it became the best-selling British music newspaper. It started as a newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s and 1990s. An online version of NME, NME. com, was launched in 1996 and it became the worlds biggest standalone music site, with over seven million users per month. With newsstand sales falling across the UK magazine sector, the paid circulation in the first half of 2014 was 15,830. In 2013, the list of NMEs The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, NME magazine was relaunched in September 2015 as a nationally distributed free publication. NMEs headquarters are in Southwark, London, England, the brands editor-in-chief is Mike Williams, who replaced Krissi Murison in 2012. The paper was established in 1952, the Accordion Times and Musical Express was bought by London music promoter Maurice Kinn, for the sum of £1,000, just 15 minutes before it was due to be officially closed. It was relaunched as the New Musical Express, and was published in a non-glossy tabloid format on standard newsprint. On 14 November 1952, taking its cue from the US magazine Billboard, it created the first UK Singles Chart, the first of these was, in contrast to more recent charts, a top twelve sourced by the magazine itself from sales in regional stores around the UK. The first number one was Here in My Heart by Al Martino, during the 1960s the paper championed the new British groups emerging at the time. The NME circulation peaked under Andy Gray, Editor 1957–1972, with a figure of 306,881 for the period from January to June 1964, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were frequently featured on the front cover. These and other artists appeared at the NME Poll Winners Concert. The concert also featured a ceremony where the winners would collect their awards. The NME Poll Winners Concerts took place between 1959 and 1972, from 1964 onwards they were filmed, edited and transmitted on British television a few weeks after they had taken place. The latter part of the 1960s saw the chart the rise of psychedelia. During this period some sections of pop music began to be designated as rock, in early 1972 the paper found itself on the verge of closure by its owner IPC. Alan Smith was made editor and in 1972 was told by IPC to turn things around quickly or face closure, according to The Economist, the New Musical Express started to champion underground, up-and-coming music. NME became the gateway to a more rebellious world

32.
Brownsville, Brooklyn
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Brownsville is a residential neighborhood located in eastern Brooklyn in New York City. The 1. 163-square-mile area that comprises Brownsville has 58,300 residents as of the 2010 United States Census, part of Brooklyn Community Board 16, Brownsville is generally considered part of greater East New York, though it is not actually a part of East New York itself. Founded in its current incarnation in 1858, it has been characterized as a slum through most of its existence, initially a settlement composed of Jewish factory workers, Brownsville underwent a major demographic change in the 1950s that saw an influx of African-American and Latino residents. Since then, it has held one of the highest poverty. The area that would become Brownsville was first used by the Dutch for farming, as well as manufacturing stone slabs, in 1823–1824, the Dutch founded the New Lots Reformed Church in nearby New Lots because the corresponding church in Flatbush was too far away. The church, which has its own cemetery that was built in 1841, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, in 1858, William Suydam parceled the land into 262 lots, providing simple two- to four-room accommodations for workers who were living there. However, Suydam vastly underestimated how undesirable the area was, there were 250 houses in Browns Village by 1883, most of them occupied by factory workers who commuted to Manhattan. In the 1880s, the area was a floodplain that was used as a dumping ground. Fumes from the factories along Jamaica Bay would usually blow upwind into Brownsville. This place was far enough from Manhattan that the affluent refused to move to Brownsville. Brownsville was predominantly Jewish from the 1880s until the 1950s, kaplan built a factory and accommodations for his workers, then placed a synagogue, named Ohev Sholom, in his own factory. Other manufacturers that created low-tech products like food, furniture, and metals followed suit throughout the next decade and this led to much more housing being built there. The area bounded by present-day Dumont, Rockaway, and Liberty Avenues, and Junius Street, quickly became populated, with factories, workshops. By 1900, an estimated 25,000 people lived in Brownsville, many of these buildings were grossly overcrowded, with up to eight families living in some of these two-family houses. Many of these houses lacked amenities like running water, and their wood construction made these houses susceptible to fires, New brick-and-stone houses erected in the early 1900s were built with indoor plumbing and less prone to fire. The quality of life was decreased by the fact that the unpaved roads were used as open sewers. Within twenty years of the development, the area acquired a reputation as a vicious slum. Indeed, as of 1904,22 out of 25 housing units in Brownsville were tenement housing, rising to 24 out of 25 units by 1907 and it became as dense as the very densely packed Lower East Side, according to one account

33.
Robert Kennedy
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Robert Francis Bobby Kennedy, commonly known by his initials RFK, was an American politician from Massachusetts. He served as the United States junior senator from New York from January 1965 until his assassination in June 1968. He was previously the 64th U. S. Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, serving under his older brother President John F. Kennedy and his successor, Kennedy was a member of the Democratic Party, and is seen as an icon of modern American liberalism. After serving in the United States Naval Reserve as a Seaman Apprentice from 1944 to 1946, Kennedy graduated from Harvard University, prior to entering public office, he worked as a correspondent for The Boston Post and as an assistant counsel to the Senate committee chaired by Joe McCarthy. Kennedy was the manager for his brother John in the 1960 presidential election. He was appointed Attorney General after the election and served as the closest adviser to the president from 1961 to 1963. His tenure is best known for its advocacy for the Civil Rights Movement, the fight against organized crime and the Mafia, after his brothers assassination, he remained in office in the Johnson administration for a few months. He left to run for the United States Senate in New York in 1964, in 1968, Kennedy was a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination for the presidency, he appealed especially to poor, African-American, Hispanic, Catholic and young voters. Robert F. Kennedy was born on November 20,1925, in Brookline, Massachusetts and his older brothers were Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. and John F. Jack Kennedy, who was elected the 35th President of the United States in 1960. His younger brother was longtime United States Senator Edward M. Ted Kennedy, all four of his grandparents were children of Irish immigrants. His father was a businessman and a leading Irish Catholic figure in the Democratic Party. After he stepped down as ambassador to the United Kingdom in 1940, Joe Sr. focused his attention on his oldest son, Joseph Jr. expecting that he would enter politics and be elected president. He also urged the children to examine and discuss current events in order to propel them to public service. After Joseph Jr. was killed during World War II, the senior Kennedys hopes fell on his son, John. Joseph Sr. had the money and connections to play a role in the familys political ambitions. Kennedys older brother John was often bedridden by illness and, as a result, although he made little effort to get to know his younger brother during his childhood, John would take him for walks and regale him with the stories of heroes and adventures he had read. One of their favorite authors was John Buchan, who wrote The Thirty-Nine Steps, John sometimes referred to Robert as Black Robert due to his prudishness and disposition. He described his position in the hierarchy by saying, When you come from that far down

34.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
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Kennedy was a member of the Democratic Party, and his New Frontier domestic program was largely enacted as a memorial to him after his death. Kennedy also established the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963, Kennedys time in office was marked by high tensions with Communist states. He increased the number of American military advisers in South Vietnam by a factor of 18 over President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in Cuba, a failed attempt was made at the Bay of Pigs to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro in April 1961. He subsequently rejected plans by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to orchestrate false-flag attacks on American soil in order to gain approval for a war against Cuba. After military service in the United States Naval Reserve in World War II and he was elected subsequently to the U. S. Senate and served as the junior Senator from Massachusetts from 1953 until 1960. Kennedy defeated Vice President, and Republican presidential candidate, Richard Nixon in the 1960 U. S, at age 43, he became the youngest elected president and the second-youngest president. Kennedy was also the first person born in the 20th century to serve as president, to date, Kennedy has been the only Roman Catholic president and the only president to have won a Pulitzer Prize. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22,1963, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested that afternoon and determined to have fired the shots that hit the President from a sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository. Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby fatally shot Oswald two days later in a jail corridor, then-Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson succeeded Kennedy after he died in the hospital. The FBI and the Warren Commission officially concluded that Oswald was the lone assassin, the majority of Americans alive at the time of the assassination, and continuing through 2013, believed that there was a conspiracy and that Oswald was not the only shooter. Since the 1960s, information concerning Kennedys private life has come to light, including his health problems, Kennedy continues to rank highly in historians polls of U. S. presidents and with the general public. His average approval rating of 70% is the highest of any president in Gallups history of systematically measuring job approval and his grandfathers P. J. Kennedy and Boston Mayor John F. Fitzgerald were both Massachusetts politicians. All four of his grandparents were the children of Irish immigrants, Kennedy had an elder brother, Joseph Jr. and seven younger siblings, Rosemary, Kathleen, Eunice, Patricia, Robert, Jean, and Ted. Kennedy lived in Brookline for ten years and attended the Edward Devotion School, the Noble and Greenough Lower School, and the Dexter School through 4th grade. In 1927, the Kennedy family moved to a stately twenty-room, Georgian-style mansion at 5040 Independence Avenue in the Hudson Hill neighborhood of Riverdale, Bronx and he attended the lower campus of Riverdale Country School, a private school for boys, from 5th to 7th grade. Two years later, the moved to 294 Pondfield Road in the New York City suburb of Bronxville, New York. The Kennedy family spent summers at their home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, in September 1930, Kennedy—then 13 years old—attended the Canterbury School in New Milford, Connecticut. In late April 1931, he required an appendectomy, after which he withdrew from Canterbury, in September 1931, Kennedy attended Choate, a boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut, for 9th through 12th grade

35.
North Carolina
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North Carolina is a state in the southeastern region of the United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west, Virginia to the north, North Carolina is the 28th most extensive and the 9th most populous of the U. S. states. The state is divided into 100 counties, the most populous municipality is Charlotte, which is the second largest banking center in the United States after New York City. The state has a range of elevations, from sea level on the coast to 6,684 feet at Mount Mitchell. The climate of the plains is strongly influenced by the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the falls in the humid subtropical climate zone. More than 300 miles from the coast, the western, mountainous part of the state has a highland climate. North Carolina is bordered by South Carolina on the south, Georgia on the southwest, Tennessee on the west, Virginia on the north, the United States Census Bureau places North Carolina in the South Atlantic division of the southern region. So many ships have been lost off Cape Hatteras that the area is known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic, the most famous of these is the Queen Annes Revenge, which went aground in Beaufort Inlet in 1718. The coastal plain transitions to the Piedmont region along the Atlantic Seaboard fall line, the Piedmont region of central North Carolina is the states most populous region, containing the six largest cities in the state by population. It consists of rolling countryside frequently broken by hills or low mountain ridges. The Piedmont ranges from about 300 feet in elevation in the east to about 1,500 feet in the west, the western section of the state is part of the Appalachian Mountain range. Among the subranges of the Appalachians located in the state are the Great Smoky Mountains, Blue Ridge Mountains, the Black Mountains are the highest in the eastern United States, and culminate in Mount Mitchell at 6,684 feet, the highest point east of the Mississippi River. North Carolina has 17 major river basins, the five basins west of the Blue Ridge Mountains flow to the Gulf of Mexico, while the remainder flow to the Atlantic Ocean. Of the 17 basins,11 originate within the state of North Carolina, but only four are contained entirely within the states border – the Cape Fear, the Neuse, the White Oak, and the Tar-Pamlico basin. Elevation above sea level is most responsible for temperature change across the state, the climate is also influenced by the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf Stream, especially in the coastal plain. These influences tend to cause warmer winter temperatures along the coast, the coastal plain averages around 1 inch of snow or ice annually, and in many years, there may be no snow or ice at all. North Carolina experiences severe weather in summer and winter, with summer bringing threat of hurricanes, tropical storms, heavy rain

36.
Steubenville, Ohio
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Steubenville is a city in and the county seat of Jefferson County, Ohio, United States. Located along the Ohio River, it had a population of 18,659 at the 2010 census, the citys name is derived from Fort Steuben, a 1786 fort that sat within the citys current limits and was named for German-Prussian military officer Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben. Today, a replica of the fort is open to the public, Steubenville is known as the City of Murals, after its more than 25 downtown murals. It is home to Franciscan University of Steubenville and Eastern Gateway Community College, Steubenville is a principal city of the Weirton-Steubenville, WV-OH Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had a population of 124,454 residents. When the surveyors completed their task a few later, the fort was abandoned. In the meantime, settlers had built homes around the fort, the name Steubenville was derived from Fort Steuben to honor Baron von Steuben. The town was referred to as La Belle City, a franglais interpretation of The Beautiful City. Wells, a government surveyor born in Baltimore, received about 1,000 acres of land west of the Ohio River, Ross, on March 1,1803, Ohio was admitted to the Union as the 17th state. During the first half of the century, Steubenville was primarily a port town. Steubenville received a city charter in 1851, in 1856, Frazier, Kilgore and Company erected a rolling mill and the Steubenville Coal and Mining Company sank a coal shaft. The city was a stop along the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, in 1946, the College of Steubenville was founded by the Franciscan Friars of the Third Order Regular. In 1980, its name was changed to University of Steubenville, in 1966, the Jefferson County Technical Institute was founded. In 1977, its name was changed to Jefferson Technical College, in 1995, it became a community college and was renamed Jefferson Community College. In 2009, the college expanded its service district by three Ohio counties, and was renamed again, Eastern Gateway Community College, in 1992, the RZA was involved in a shoot-out, acquitted before starting the Wu-Tang Clan after shooting an adversary in the leg. He faced eight years in jail, when they said not guilty, my face stuck in a smile for three days, he recalled. I was just walking around town, thinking about my daughter, right then I said goodbye to anything that would put me in that situation again. I was up on trial on a murder charge. I was a fool, with all that knowledge in my head

37.
Pittsburgh
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Pittsburgh is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the United States, and is the county seat of Allegheny County. The city proper has a population of 304,391. The metropolitan population of 2,353,045 is the largest in both the Ohio Valley and Appalachia, the second-largest in Pennsylvania, and the 26th-largest in the U. S. The city features 30 skyscrapers, two inclines, a fortification and the Point State Park at the confluence of the rivers. Aside from steel, Pittsburgh has led in manufacturing of aluminum, glass, shipbuilding, petroleum, foods, sports, transportation, computing, autos, and electronics. For part of the 20th century, Pittsburgh was behind only New York and Chicago in corporate headquarters employment, Americas 1980s deindustrialization laid off area blue-collar workers and thousands of downtown white-collar workers when the longtime Pittsburgh-based world headquarters moved out. The area has served also as the federal agency headquarters for cyber defense, software engineering, robotics, energy research. The area is home to 68 colleges and universities, including research and development leaders Carnegie Mellon University, the region is a hub for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, sustainable energy, and energy extraction. Pittsburgh was named in 1758 by General John Forbes, in honor of British statesman William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham. The current pronunciation, which is unusual in English speaking countries, is almost certainly a result of a printing error in some copies of the City Charter of March 18,1816. The error was repeated commonly enough throughout the rest of the 19th century that the pronunciation was lost. After a public campaign the original spelling was restored by the United States Board on Geographic Names in 1911. The area of the Ohio headwaters was long inhabited by the Shawnee, the first known European to enter the region was the French explorer/trader Robert de La Salle from Quebec during his 1669 expedition down the Ohio River. European pioneers, primarily Dutch, followed in the early 18th century, Michael Bezallion was the first to describe the forks of the Ohio in a 1717 manuscript, and later that year European fur traders established area posts and settlements. In 1749, French soldiers from Quebec launched an expedition to the forks to unite Canada with French Louisiana via the rivers, during 1753–54, the British hastily built Fort Prince George before a larger French force drove them off. The French built Fort Duquesne based on LaSalles 1669 claims, the French and Indian War, the North American front of the Seven Years War, began with the future Pittsburgh as its center. British General Edward Braddock was dispatched with Major George Washington as his aide to take Fort Duquesne, the British and colonial force were defeated at Braddocks Field. General John Forbes finally took the forks in 1758, Forbes began construction on Fort Pitt, named after William Pitt the Elder while the settlement was named Pittsborough

38.
Hill District (Pittsburgh)
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The Hill District is a historic African-American collection of neighborhoods in the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Beginning in the leading up to World War I the Hill was the cultural center of African-American life in the city. The Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as of 2010 the area comprises Census Tracts 305,501,506,509,510 and 511. It is bordered by the Downtown on the west, the Strip District next to the Allegheny River and Polish Hill to the north, the Bluff on the southwest, and Oakland on the east and southeast. The census tract/neighborhoods noted in the Hill District are represented on the Pittsburgh City Council by the member for District 6. Part of the Upper Hill is also represented under District 7, the 15219 ZIP code covers all five neighborhoods, and the 15213 ZIP code covers part of Terrace Village and the Upper Hill. Following the rebellion by slaves and gaining of independence of Haiti in 1804, the early residents of the Hill District were middle-class free blacks. In 2004 the Pittsburgh City Council announced commemoration of the 200th anniversary of Haitis independence, beginning in the 1910s, the Hill attracted migrants from elsewhere in the United States and from abroad, creating a vibrant and diverse social landscape. Jazz musicians thrived here and the neighborhood was considered the crossroads of the world and that phrase, attributed to Harlem Renaissance poet Claude McKay, was popularized by radio DJ Mary Dee, of WHOD Radio, Pittsburghs only black radio station. The district had cultural vibrancy, and numerous entertainment venues and black-owned businesses. Following World War II, the government committed to upgrade housing across the nation. In an article from 1943, George E and he wrote, The Hill District of Pittsburgh is probably one of the most outstanding examples in Pittsburgh of neighborhood deterioration. There are 7,000 separate property owners, more than 10,000 dwelling units, approximately 90 per cent of the buildings in the area are sub-standard and have long outlived their usefulness, and so there would be no social loss if they were all destroyed. Evans represented the majority view of Pittsburgh politicians, including state representative Homer S. Brown, born in West Virginia, Brown was the third African American to graduate from the University of Pittsburgh law school and was active in civic affairs. He established a law practice, became president of the local NAACP chapter, in the 1940s, working with David Lawrence, Richard King Mellon, and other business leaders, Brown drafted legislation that opened the way to urban renewal in the Hill District. During the next decade, he authorized the relocation of 1,500 black families to make way for the Civic Arena and he was elected as Allegheny Countys first African-American judge, sitting in Pittsburgh. In the summer of 1956, some 1,300 structures were razed, displacing about 1,500 families and this cleared the way for the construction of the Civic Arena and adjacent parking, to support downtown events and attract major entertainment. But, the redevelopment severed the Hill District from surrounding neighborhoods, between 1950 and 1990, the Hill lost 71% of its residents and about 400 businesses, leaving the neighborhood hollowed out

39.
Gza
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Gary Grice, better known by his stage names GZA and The Genius, is an American rapper and songwriter. A founding member of the hip hop group the Wu-Tang Clan, GZA is known as the spiritual head. He has appeared on his fellow Clan members solo projects, and since the release of his acclaimed solo album Liquid Swords. An analysis of GZAs lyrics found that he has the second largest vocabulary in hip hop music and he teamed up with an education group to promote science education in New York City through hip hop. Gary Grice developed an interest in hip-hop by attending block parties as a child in the early 1970s and he was involved in breakdance, graffiti, and DJing. Early on he developed an interest in writing, studying Mother Goose, in 1974-76 he listened to The Last Poets, however he was attracted by profanity rather than content, and didnt understand the underlying messages until many years later. The Last Poets, as well as songs by The Isley Brothers, the Commodores, later on, he began to listen to hip hop and R&B, for example by Secret Weapon and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. He formed a group with his cousins, Robert Diggs and Russell Jones. At the time he didnt like the sound of his voice and he left school in the 10th grade, but nurtured his affection for science as he developed his skills as a lyricist. After some years of this, GZA was signed to Cold Chillin Records as a solo artist under the name The Genius. Albums beat selection is similar to the classic sound of the early 1990s. At the time he worked as a bicycle messenger, in 1992, GZA joined the Wu-Tang Clan, a group of nine, formed by his cousin RZA. GZA had some appearances on the groups debut album, Enter the Wu-Tang, including a solo track. This, combined with appearances on other Clan members albums such as Return to the 36 Chambers, The Dirty Version, according to Method Man, we form like Voltron and GZA happens to be the head. It was released on November 7 by Geffen Records, the albums complex composition included dialogue sampled from kung fu film Shogun Assassin. The album was met with reviews and sold well. It is considered to be one of the best albums from the Wu-Tang camp and it peaked at the #9 spot on the Billboard 200 chart and #2 on the Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart. On October 8,2015, the Recording Industry Association of America announced that the album had earned a Platinum certification for having more than 1 million copies

Brooklyn
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Brooklyn is the most populous borough of New York City, with a Census-estimated 2,636,735 residents in 2015. It borders the borough of Queens at the end of Long Island. Today, if New York City dissolved, Brooklyn would rank as the third-most populous city in the U. S. behind Los Angeles, the borough continues, however, to maintain a distinct cultur

4.
A typical dining table in the Dutch village of Brooklyn, c. 1664, from The Brooklyn Museum.

Staten Island
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Staten Island /ˌstætən ˈaɪlənd/ is one of the five boroughs of New York City in the U. S. state of New York. In the southwest of the city, Staten Island is the southernmost part of both the city and state of New York, with Conference House Park at the tip of the island. The borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Ku

Hip hop music
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It developed as part of hip hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements, MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching with turntables, break dancing, and graffiti writing. Other elements include sampling beats or bass lines from records, while often used to refer solely to rapping, hip hop more properly denotes the practice of the entire su

1.
1520 Sedgwick Avenue, the Bronx, a venue used by Kool Herc that is often considered the birthplace of hip hop in 1973

2.
DJ Kool Herc, recognized as one of the earliest hip hop artists

3.
Grandmaster Flash

4.
Afrika Bambaataa (left)

Rapping
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The components of rapping include content, flow, and delivery. Rap differs from spoken-word poetry in that rap is performed in time to a beat. Rapping is often associated with and an ingredient of hip-hop music. Rapping is also used in Kwaito music, a genre originated in Johannesburg, South Africa. Another form of rap that predates hip hop was boxe

Zither
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Zither is a class of stringed instruments. The word zither is a German rendering of the Latin word cithara, historically, it has been applied to any instrument of the cittern family, or an instrument consisting of many strings stretched across a thin, flat body – similar to a psaltery. This article describes the second variety, like a guitar or lut

1.
Typical concert (or fretted) zither

2.
Typical chord (or fretless) 'guitar zither'

3.
Turkish Qanun with 79 strings

4.
Alpine Scheitholt

Sampler (musical instrument)
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The samples are loaded or recorded by the user or by a manufacturer. These sounds are played back by means of the sampler program itself. Because these samples are stored in digital memory, the information can be quickly accessed. A single sample may often be pitch-shifted to different pitches to produce musical scales, often samplers offer filters

Soul Temple Records
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Soul Temple Records is an American record label founded in 2012 by hip hop music recording artist RZA and Bob Perry, after the release of the RZA directed The Man with the Iron Fists. The labels first release would be that albums soundtrack, the label has since released studio albums by Wu-Tang Clan members Ghostface Killah and U-God. All albums re

Warner Bros. Records
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Warner Bros. Records was established on March 19,1958, as the recorded-music division of the American film studio Warner Bros. For most of its existence it was one of a group of labels owned and operated by larger parent corporations. The sequence of companies that controlled Warner Bros. and its allied labels evolved through a series of corporate

1.
The gold, black and red label design used for Warner Bros. stereo albums from 1958 to 1968 and mono albums from 1964 to 1968.

2.
The grey, black, white and yellow label design used for Warner Bros. mono albums from 1958 to 1964 when it switched to the same gold label as the stereo version.

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"Cream Puff War" (1967), the first Warner Bros. single by The Grateful Dead, showing the orange label with chevron border used on WBR's American 45s for much of the 1960s.

4.
Beginning in 1968, Warner LP and single label designs became identical. From 1968 to 1970, the label was called Warner Bros.-Seven Arts Records. The basic design and colour scheme of the W7 label were retained after the company name reverted to Warner Bros. Records and the "WB" shield in 1970 and remained in use until 1973.

Epic Records
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Epic Records is an American record company owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, Inc. Epic was founded predominantly as a jazz and classical music label in 1953 and it later expanded its scope to include a more diverse range of musical genres, including pop, R&B, rock and hip hop. Historically, the label ha

1.
Classic radial sound sunburst logo, used from the 1960s to 1973, revived in late 1998; used until 2005. Still used on Japanese operations. This logo was used on Pearl Jam 's Vitalogy in 1994, No Code in 1996 and Yield in February 1998.

2.
Epic Records

3.
Primary businesses

Sony Music Entertainment
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Sony Music Entertainment is an American music company owned by Sony. It is incorporated as a partnership of Sony Music Holdings Inc. through Sony Entertainment. The company was first founded in 1929 as American Record Corporation and renamed Columbia Recording Corporation in 1938, in 1966, the company was reorganized to become CBS Records. Sony Cor

1.
550 Madison Avenue in New York City, the headquarters of Sony Music

2.
Sony Music Entertainment

3.
Primary businesses

Koch Records
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Entertainment One Music, a primary division of Entertainment One, is an independent record label in the United States. It has garnered the most Billboard hits of any independently owned music label in history and it is also distributed by the Universal Music Group in Europe under the name eOne Universal. On January 22,2009, Koch Records was officia

1.
Entertainment One U.S. LP

V2 Records
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V2 Records is a record label that was purchased by Universal Music Group in 2007, and then by PIAS Entertainment Group in 2013. The label was founded in 1996 by Richard Branson, five years after he sold Virgin Records to EMI, the label was owned 95% by Morgan Stanley, the chief financier of the company, and 5% by Branson. Over the years V2 acquired

Bertelsmann Music Group
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Bertelsmann Music Group was a division of German media company Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Japans Sony Corporation of America on October 1,2008. It was established in 1987 to combine the music activities of Bertelsmann. The joint venture with Sony Music was set up in August 2004 and it reduced the Big

1.
Primary businesses

Wu-Tang Clan
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Cappadonna later became an official member of the group. The group was formed in and is associated with the New York City borough of Staten Island, the Wu-Tang Clan has released seven gold and platinum studio albums with worldwide sales of more than 40 million albums, including members solo projects, since 1992. Its debut album, Enter the Wu-Tang,

1.
Members of the Wu-Tang Clan and their affiliates performing at the Virgin Festival in Baltimore.

2.
Wu-Tang Clan performing at Budapest - 2015.07.07

Gravediggaz
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Gravediggaz is an American hip hop group from New York City, known for its dark sense of humor and abrasive, menacing soundscapes. The group was formed in 1991, bringing together Prince Paul, Frukwan, Poetic and it came about largely due to the efforts of Prince Paul. The group pioneered the small hip-hop subgenre of horrorcore, the groups first al

1.
Gravediggaz, from left to right: The Rzarector (RZA), The Undertaker, The Gatekeeper and The Grym Reaper (deceased)

John Frusciante
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John Anthony Frusciante is an American guitarist, singer, producer and composer. He is best known as the former guitarist of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, from 1988 until 1992 and he recorded five studio albums with them. Frusciante has a solo career, having released eleven solo albums and five EPs, his recordings include elements ranging fr

1.
John Frusciante in 2006

2.
Frusciante with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2006

James Blake (musician)
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James Blake Litherland, known as James Blake, is an English singer, songwriter, musician and record producer from London. He first received recognition in 2010 for a trio of dubstep-influenced EPs, and his second studio album Overgrown was released in 2013 and was awarded the Mercury Prize. His third studio album The Colour in Anything was released

1.
James Blake performing at Dockville, Germany, Hamburg, 2012

Ol' Dirty Bastard
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Russell Tyrone Jones, better known under his stage name Ol Dirty Bastard, was an American rapper and producer. He was one of the members of the Wu-Tang Clan. After establishing the Wu-Tang Clan, Ol Dirty Bastard went on to pursue a solo career. However, his success was hampered by frequent legal troubles. He died on November 13,2004, of a drug over

1.
Ol' Dirty Bastard, late 1990's

2.
Ol' Dirty Bastard in a 2001 police mugshot

GZA
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Gary Grice, better known by his stage names GZA and The Genius, is an American rapper and songwriter. A founding member of the hip hop group the Wu-Tang Clan, GZA is known as the spiritual head. He has appeared on his fellow Clan members solo projects, and since the release of his acclaimed solo album Liquid Swords. An analysis of GZAs lyrics found

1.
GZA performing in 2008.

Horrorcore
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Horrorcore is a subgenre of hip hop music based on horror-themed and often darkly transgressive lyrical content and imagery. While exaggerated violence and the supernatural are common in horrorcore, the genre also frequently presents more realistic yet still disturbing portrayals of mental illness, the term horrorcore was popularized by openly horr

1.
Scarface, of the group Geto Boys, whose violent, horror-themed lyrics have been singled out as the first recorded example of horrorcore.

Kill Bill: Volume 1
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Kill Bill, Volume 1 is a 2003 American martial arts film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Uma Thurman as the Bride, who swears revenge on a team of assassins and her journey takes her to Japan, where she battles the Tokyo yakuza. Tarantino conceived Kill Bill as a homage to grindhouse cinema including martial arts films, samurai

1.
Teaser poster

2.
Calvary Baptist Church in Hi Vista, California, used as a filming location

Kill Bill: Volume 2
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Kill Bill, Volume 2 is a 2004 American martial arts film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Uma Thurman as the Bride, who continues her campaign of revenge against the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad and their leader Bill, Tarantino conceived Kill Bill as a homage to grindhouse cinema including martial arts films, samurai cinema,

The Man with the Iron Fists
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The Man with the Iron Fists is a 2012 American martial arts film directed by RZA and written by RZA and Eli Roth. The film stars RZA, Russell Crowe, Cung Le, Lucy Liu, Byron Mann, Rick Yune, Dave Bautista, and Jamie Chung. Set in 19th century China, the story follows a series of lone warriors who are forced to unite to defeat a common foe, developm

3.
RZA in 2009. The Man with the Iron Fists is his first feature film as director

American Gangster (film)
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American Gangster is a 2007 American biographical crime film directed and produced by Ridley Scott and written by Steven Zaillian. The film stars Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington in their first lead acting roles together since 1995s Virtuosity, the film also co-stars Ted Levine, John Ortiz, Josh Brolin, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Norman Reedus, Ruby Dee,

1.
Theatrical release poster

2.
Russell Crowe (pictured here in 2006) worked with director Ridley Scott on the film's script.

3.
Many abandoned buildings in Harlem were shot, to give an accurate and authentic depiction of the area in the 1970s.

4.
Principal photography took place in several location throughout New York, including the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Brick Mansions
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Brick Mansions is a 2014 English-language French-Canadian crime-thriller film starring Paul Walker, David Belle and RZA. The film was directed by Camille Delamarre and written by Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen and it is a remake of the 2004 French film District 13, in which Belle had also starred. Brick Mansions was released on April 25,2014, five m

1.
Theatrical release poster

Gang Related (TV series)
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Gang Related is an American action drama television series that aired on Fox from May 22 to August 14,2014. The network placed the series order on May 8,2013. On September 2,2014, Fox cancelled the series and he was born in a poor town in Mexico, and moved to the United States illegally with his new family at that time. Jay Hernandez as Daniel Acos

1.
Gang Related

Californication (TV series)
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Californication is an American comedy-drama television series created by Tom Kapinos, which aired for seven seasons on Showtime from August 13,2007, to June 29,2014. The show follows New Yorker Hank Moody, a troubled novelist who moves to California and his drinking, womanizing, and drug abuse complicate his relationships with his longtime lover Ka

1.
Californication

Soul music
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Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It combines elements of African-American gospel music, rhythm and blues, Soul music became popular for dancing and listening in the United States, where record labels such as Motown, Atlantic and Stax were influential during the Civil Rights

1.
James Brown

2.
Al Green, influential soul performer

3.
Levi Stubbs singing lead with the Four Tops in 1966

4.
Isaac Hayes performing in 1973

The Source (magazine)
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The Source is a United States-based monthly full-color magazine covering hip-hop music, politics, and culture, founded in 1988. It is the worlds longest running rap periodical, being founded as a newsletter in 1988, the Source was originally started by David Mays, a Harvard University student in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mays decided to hire his fr

1.
The Source

Vibe (magazine)
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Vibe is an American music and entertainment magazine founded by producer Quincy Jones. The publication predominantly features R&B and hip hop artists, actors. The magazines target demographic is young, urban followers of hip hop culture. In 2014, the magazine moved online-only, Quincy Jones launched Vibe in 1993, in partnership with Time Inc. Origi

1.
Janet Jackson on the cover of Vibe

NME
–
New Musical Express is a British music journalism magazine published since 1952. It was the first British paper to include a singles chart, in the 1970s it became the best-selling British music newspaper. It started as a newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s and 1990s. An online version of NME, NME. com, was launc

1.
Cover featuring Patti Smith for the week of 21 February 1976

2.
Blur vs. Oasis issue in August 1995.

3.
Logo of the 2006 NME Awards Tour.

Brownsville, Brooklyn
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Brownsville is a residential neighborhood located in eastern Brooklyn in New York City. The 1. 163-square-mile area that comprises Brownsville has 58,300 residents as of the 2010 United States Census, part of Brooklyn Community Board 16, Brownsville is generally considered part of greater East New York, though it is not actually a part of East New

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The Samuel J. Tilden Houses, one of many NYCHA public housing developments located in Brownsville

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Marcus Garvey Houses

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Loew's Pitkin Theatre

Robert Kennedy
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Robert Francis Bobby Kennedy, commonly known by his initials RFK, was an American politician from Massachusetts. He served as the United States junior senator from New York from January 1965 until his assassination in June 1968. He was previously the 64th U. S. Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, serving under his older brother Pr

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Kennedy appearing before the Platform Committee, 1964

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The Kennedy family at Hyannisport in 1931 with Robert on bottom left in jacket. Ted was born the following year.

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Robert, Ted, and President John F. Kennedy outside the Oval Office in 1963.

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Kennedy speaking to a civil rights crowd in front of the Justice Department on June 14, 1963.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy
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Kennedy was a member of the Democratic Party, and his New Frontier domestic program was largely enacted as a memorial to him after his death. Kennedy also established the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963, Kennedys time in office was marked by high tensions with Communist states. He increased the number of American military advisers in South Vi

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John F. Kennedy

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The Kennedy family at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, in 1931 with Jack at top left in white shirt. Ted was born the following year.

North Carolina
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North Carolina is a state in the southeastern region of the United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west, Virginia to the north, North Carolina is the 28th most extensive and the 9th most populous of the U. S. states. The state is divided into 100 counties, the most populous municipality is Charlot

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North Carolina topographic map

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Flag

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The Blue Ridge Mountains as seen from the Blue Ridge Parkway.

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Deer in the Eno River as it flows through the Piedmont region of North Carolina

Steubenville, Ohio
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Steubenville is a city in and the county seat of Jefferson County, Ohio, United States. Located along the Ohio River, it had a population of 18,659 at the 2010 census, the citys name is derived from Fort Steuben, a 1786 fort that sat within the citys current limits and was named for German-Prussian military officer Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steub

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Jefferson County Courthouse, 2007

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Market Street, 1910

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Ohio Valley Clay Company, 1910

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The Veterans Memorial Bridge connects Steubenville to Weirton, West Virginia across the Ohio River and is the border crossing between the states of West Virginia and Ohio on U.S. Highway 22.

Pittsburgh
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Pittsburgh is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the United States, and is the county seat of Allegheny County. The city proper has a population of 304,391. The metropolitan population of 2,353,045 is the largest in both the Ohio Valley and Appalachia, the second-largest in Pennsylvania, and the 26th-largest in the U. S. The city feature

Hill District (Pittsburgh)
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The Hill District is a historic African-American collection of neighborhoods in the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Beginning in the leading up to World War I the Hill was the cultural center of African-American life in the city. The Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as of 2010 the area comprises Census Tracts 305,501,506,509,510 and 511.

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The Hill District is the largely green area visible above downtown Pittsburgh in this aerial photo.

Gza
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Gary Grice, better known by his stage names GZA and The Genius, is an American rapper and songwriter. A founding member of the hip hop group the Wu-Tang Clan, GZA is known as the spiritual head. He has appeared on his fellow Clan members solo projects, and since the release of his acclaimed solo album Liquid Swords. An analysis of GZAs lyrics found

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Jay-Z and West recorded at various locations, including Real World Studios in Wiltshire, England.

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Singer Frank Ocean appears on "No Church in the Wild" and "Made in America". Ocean was brought onto the project per the reception of his prior musical ventures.

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Stylistically the album features samples largely considered unconventional, an aesthetic quality shared with West's previous album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Both albums had production handled by West.